Rich people race to the bottom

Just when you think The White Lotus couldn’t assemble a better cast, you’ve got Walton Goggins complaining to his much-younger girlfriend about being “on a fucking fat farm” and Carrie Coon bitching about how “pathetic” Michelle Monaghan is to Leslie Bibb. With another envious ensemble like that, the third season seems guaranteed to be another banger from Mike White. And now The White Lotus third season trailer is here to really prime our appetites for more oblivious rich people shenanigans ahead of the February 16 premiere. 

The upcoming episodes feature another week in the life of the employees and guests of The White Lotus resort, this time in Thailand. Beloved Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) is back “on an exchange program” from the Hawaii resort. The new collection of employees includes (Lalisa Manobal), a “health mentor” for guests, and Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), a security guard. There’s also Sritala (Lek Patravadi), “one of the owners of The White Lotus and the visionary behind its wellness program,” per HBO’s synopsis. 

On the guest side, we have Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs), a wealthy businessman traveling with his wife (Parker Posey) and three children: Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), the oldest son who works at his father’s company; Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), a college senior and religion studies major; and Lochlan (Sam Nivola), the youngest and a high school senior. Coon, Monaghan, and Bibb play three besties traveling together on a girls’ trip “after not having seen each other for a while.” And Aimee Lou Wood plays Chelsea, a “free-spirit, traveling with her on-edge older boyfriend Rick,” who is “a rugged man with a chip on his shoulder” played by Goggins. 

Goggins has called being part of the show “one of the greatest experiences of my life,” and teased to People that “Nobody writes an existential crisis like Mike White does.” According to The White Lotus third season trailer, one of the major themes is the pursuit of pleasure at all costs—and knowing the show, the cost will be pretty high. “If everybody gives in to base instinct, it’d be total depravity. Like a race to the bottom,” Lachlan observes in the trailer. But man, will we love watching this cast indulge in total depravity!