It was THE show of 2023, and although we’re in for a long wait for Season 3 – we’re even more excited now with the news that Kiwi (and absolute gem of a human) Morgana O’Reilly is joining The White Lotus.
“The very cool cat is out of the super cool bag,” Morgana said this morning, confirming she will be in the new series, set in Thailand.
The International Emmy Award-winner (yes, thanks to the show, INSiDE she starred in during lockdown!) has previously starred in Mean Mums, Housebound and Neighbours. She’s also spent much of the last few years touring her fantastic stage-show (seriously – we laughed out loud and cried several times), Stories About My Body.
Morgana joins a super-star line-up including Leslie Bibb, Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Dom Hetrakul, and Tayme Thapthimthong. There’s also one familiar face from the previous seasons joining the cast, Natasha Rothwell. Fans will remember her from series one where she played Belinda Lindsey, the spa manager who Tanya took a shine to, making her a world of promises, but ultimately let her down.
There’s more cast announcements to come (we’re wondering if the Deuxmoi rumour that Woody Harrelson is in the show will come to fruition!), when perhaps we will learn if any other cast members will return.
Although it’s traditionally a new cast for each series, (despite Tanya and Greg reappearing!), things were left particularly up in the air at the end of Season 2, with the death of Tanya (aka, one of the greatest TV performances of all time by Jennifer Coolidge).
If we’re speculating about who might else join the cast, we can’t help but wonder if there will be one character who ends up in all three seasons. Yip, will goddam Greg – heartbroken from losing his cowboy lover, but filthy rich from inheriting his wife’s billions AND not having to split it with anyone – jet off to Asia to spend his dirty money? Although, he may have one person in his thoughts (besides Tanya haunting him, which obviously would be a very Tanya thing to do) – the one person who could tie him back to the untimely death of his wife: Portia, Tanya’s assistant. Could Portia and Greg feature in Season 3? Might Portia want to avenge Tanya? Or just be happy to no longer have the boss from hell?
Creator Mike White is keeping us guessing: When asked about Portia potentially wanting answers about what happened that night, he said:
“It’s possible that Portia is scared enough to just leave it alone, but the fact that all of those guys die on the boat, it feels like there’s gotta be somebody who’s gonna track it down to Greg. But maybe you’ll have to wait to find out what happens.”
But personally, the addition to the cast I’m hoping to see, is Laura Dern. Sounds completely leftfield? Not quite!
See, when Dominic De Grasso – he was the dad in the inter-generational De Grasso family sandwich – was getting berated by his wife on the phone, that wife was voiced by none other than the wonderful Laura Dern. HOW GOOD would she be in a White Lotus series?! Will she travel to Thailand for a post-divorce holiday? Or a final make-or-break holiday with her husband, Dominic?
Mike White says he’d love to see Dominic and his wife have a romantic reunion together.
After Season 2 he said: “Who knows, maybe there’ll be another White Lotus season where Dominic comes with his wife and they patch it all up!”
White said. “I don’t want to think about it too much, because the idea of that makes me so happy. I don’t want to be disappointed… I would want nothing more than that. I just loved working with Mike [Imperioli] so much.”
And while a lot is up in the air for next season, there are a few things we know for sure. Mike White has teased that it will be “supersized”.
“It’s going to be longer, bigger, crazier. I don’t know what people will think, but I am super excited, so at least for my own barometer, that’s a good thing… I’m super excited about the content of the season,” he told Entertainment Weekly in November.
We CANNOT wait. Congratulations Morgana!
