‘The White Lotus’ Creator Mike White Breaks Down What’s Old & New in Season 2

The Emmy-winning anthology, The White Lotus, may have switched its Hawaiian resort to a European hot spot, but the luxury hotel chain still seems to attract tourists who have lost their way. Season 2 digs into sexual politics and male-female power dynamics.

Here are the other amenities.

The Setting

Buongiorno from Italy! “The location’s a little juicier,” says creator Mike White, who made the most of the “eye candy” surrounding the Four Seasons’ San Domenico Palace in Sicily. “There’s a lot of yachting, palazzos.… They go to the Godfather house [Castello Degli Schiavi].”

The Body

As with Season 1’s central murder mystery, “there will be blood on the floor,” White reveals. “We tease that out at the beginning.”

(Credit: HBO)

The Returnee

O.G. guest and Emmy winner Jennifer Coolidge checks back in as loopy Tanya McQuoid-Hunt, now wed to her Hawaii hookup, Greg (Jon Gries).

The New Guests

Two couples vacationing together — played by Aubrey Plaza and Will Sharpe, and Theo James and Meghann Fahy — can’t help privately comparing relationships. For one, White says:  “Are they having better sex than us?”

As Tanya’s assistant, Haley Lu Richardson is all work and no play. Then a power gay (Tom Hollander)—traveling with his magnetic nephew (Leo Woodall) — and his jet-setting pals take her under their wing. But it’s Michael Imperioli and F. Murray Abraham as Italian Americans digging into their heritage who might want to work on their present situation. “Michael’s character is in the doghouse with the women in his family because of some naughty stuff he’s gotten into,” says White. Which leads us to…

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The Locals

Two young Sicilian ladies looking to “date” rich Americans — “sugar babies,” as White calls them — “throw things into sexual chaos.”

The Boss

Unlike Season 1’s servile, ill-fated manager (RIP, Armond), Sabrina Impacciatore’s Valentina is not really in the service industry. “She scares the guests,” jokes White. 

The White Lotus, Season 2 Premiere, Sunday, October 30, 9/8c, HBO