HBO Renews 'The White Lotus' For A Second Season With A New Getaway

HBO is booking an extended stay at The White Lotus — and renewing the show for a season 2! This might just be an attempt to finally get into that Pineapple suite, but who can blame them?

On some level, a second season of The White Lotus was inevitable. Since premiering last month, the series has received plenty of critical acclaim and online chatter to boot. Though it was intended to be a limited series, HBO loves greenlighting second seasons no matter how perfectly the storyline seems to conclude.

Thankfully, this might prove to be a less extreme case. The White Lotus hotel is itself a franchise, making a new season perfectly possible. The oncoming season of The White Lotus will depart from Hawaii and follow a brand new set of vacationers in a different location.

The first season of The White Lotus takes place on an inclusive Hawaiian resort where wealthy hotel guests take a week to relax and rejuvenate in paradise. The only problem is the week is destined to end in death. In the show's first episode, we see a body loaded onto a plane and with each passing minute, start to understand why: many of the guests are utterly unbearable. Oblivious to their privilege and awful personalities, the picture-perfect travelers slowly reveal themselves to one another and, saddest of all, to the staff forced to deal with them.

Over time, we watch hotel manager Armond (Murray Bartlett), who started out with only bright smiles, sink to his lowest depths. He's joined in contempt for the guests by staff members like Hawaiian native Kai (Kekoa Scott Kekumano) and spa manager Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), who get pulled into chaos by those who don't have nearly as much to lose.

The generally terrible but fun to hate guests include newlyweds Rachel (Alexandra Daddario) and Shane (Jake Lacy), the very boozy Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) and the Mossbacher family, Mark (Steve Zahn), Nicole (Connie Britton), Quinn (Fred Hechinger), Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) and her friend Paula (Brittany O'Grady).

Series creator, writer, and director Mike White previously commented on the chances of a second season by saying discussions were taking place. He never ruled out the possibility and in fact hinted at the very announcement made earlier today — that the series would lean into anthology territory, with a new cast of characters taking charge. White said:

"I don't think you can credibly have [all the Season 1 guests] on the same vacation again. But maybe it could be a Marvel universe type thing, where some of them would come back."

There's more than one reason for some White Lotus guests not to book a second stay. The big death hanging over the season means one guest is checking out for good. As for those left standing, their vacation has proven much more eventful than they hoped. A return trip probably wouldn't be in their best interest.

This promise of new characters and a new setting gives the series plenty of space to widen the scope of its satire. But, in a way, it also limits how far it will go. If every season brings us to a new White Lotus location, it's only a matter of time before they're in need of a serious rebrand — how many disasters can one franchise handle?

The season finale of The White Lotus will be available this Sunday, August 15, 2021 on HBO Max.