Despite the inevitably negative Tripadvisor reviews that probably followed the incidents of season one, more and more people are checking in to The White Lotus. The reservation is for October 30, when season two premieres on HBO at 9 p.m. For now, we get our first look at the swirling pot of plots that will be taking over the Sicilian White Lotus outpost in the official trailer. There’s cheating, drugs, more cheating, tense meals, accusations of cheating, and some heavy portions of mascolinità tossica. Most important, really fun lines for returning player Jennifer Coolidge abound.
Previously, HBO teased the new season with a fake advertisement for the fictional luxury-resort chain’s Petal and Blossom membership circles, which we can tell will be a rich source of lower-upper-class and middle-upper-class tensions in the upcoming Sicily-based season. Jennifer Coolidge’s character, Tanya McQuoid-Hunt, is a featured Blossom circle member, saying, “So few brands have meaning anymore. But whenever I stay at any of the White Lotus properties, it’s always a memorable experience. Always.â€
There are still more check-ins to come: The Hollywood Reporter previously revealed that actors F. Murray Abraham, Adam DiMarco, Tom Hollander, and Haley Lu Richardson had joined the cast of the HBO show’s second season as regulars. It was also reported that Michael Imperioli and Leo Woodall would be joining. Following rumors that season two would take place in Italy, a source confirmed to Variety that, yes, the show would be filming in the Sicilian resort town of Taormina. A Four Seasons hotel serves as stand-in for the fictional luxury-resort chain, as it did in the previous season.
We even got character descriptions for the new recruits that led us to believe that the second season would keep exploring themes such as intergenerational masculinity crises and the dark truths of girlbossery. Meghann Fahy and Theo James “star as husband and wife Daphne and Cameron Babcock.†Will Sharpe plays “Ethan Spiller, a man on vacation with his wife Harper (Aubrey Plaza) and the Babcocks.†Woodall is “Jack, described as a magnetic guest staying at the White Lotus.†Abraham plays “Bert Di Grasso, an elderly man traveling with his son and grandson.†And DiMarco is said grandson, “a recent college grad.†(Imperioli was previously announced as the representative of the middle generation in this lineup.) Hollander plays “Quentin, an English expat who is vacationing with his friends and his nephew.†We know that Quentin will have some form of relationship to Coolidge’s Tanya, according to a Coolidge profile in Variety that describes her “shooting a scene in which she and new castmate Tom Hollander plot an adventure together.†Finally, Richardson has the honor of playing Coolidge’s assistant.
It’s all so delightfully murder-mystery party, is it not?
This post has been updated.