During a press event in New York today, HBO and Max content CEO Casey Bloys revealed that our next vacation might have gotten delayed. When asked about how the WGA strike and the still-ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike have impacted the Warner Bros. Discovery schedule, Bloys stated that highly anticipated The White Lotus Season 3 has been pushed back from 2024 to 2025.

Even though it seems like a pretty drastic move, The White Lotus was still in early production when the writers’ strike began back in May, which probably means that series creator and writer Mike White didn’t get the chance to write episodes before crossing his arms to demand fair wages from studios. Even though White might be working on new episodes as you read this, HBO can’t define a shooting schedule until the actors’ strike ends as well.

Story-wise, the plan for The White Lotus Season 3 seems to have remained the same: The new season should follow the six-episode format from previous ones and, this time around, we’ll get to see the vacation of the super-rich in Thailand. Since the series is filmed on location, this is another reason why it might have gotten a massive delay: Coordinating a team to move to a different country with a strike in place is a close-to-impossible feat.

Once Again, ‘The White Lotus’ Will Bring Back Characters

So far, all we know from the story of the new season is that Season 1’s Natasha Rothwell is returning for the future episodes. In Season 1 she played Belinda, a masseuse whose life was changed when fan-favorite Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) took a liking to her and decided she’d venture on a business along with her. The problem was, Tanya was Tanya, so she casually forgot she made a promise and Belinda’s dreams got shattered overnight. In Season 3, we’ll not only get to witness how she’s feeling afterward but also discover how the heck she got transferred all the way to Thailand.

The White Lotus premiered timidly in late 2021 and quickly became one of the must-watch titles from HBO. It was acclaimed for its eat-the-rich satire and the lowkey ways in which it depicts how cruel rich people can be without even realizing. Season 2 became even more popular as the series took the concept to a whole new level. Even though it works as an anthology series, creator Mike White likes to keep some elements connected from season to season, since the story centers around the same chain of resorts.

The White Lotus Season 3 will premiere in 2025. A specific release window is yet to be unveiled by HBO.

via Collider