A slip of the tongue? Johnny Knoxville potentially revealed the next location for the third season of The White Lotus thanks to his friendship with the show’s creator Mike White.
“Mike White is a very close friend of mine,” the Jackass star, 51, shared in an interview with Vulture published on Thursday, February 16. “He and I had been in Tokyo together. I think that’s where the next … oh, I’m not giving anything away. I might call him again as soon as this is over.”
The anthology series follows the guests and employees at a fictional resort chain named the White Lotus. Each season is set in a different location with a new cast. The first season was shot in Hawaii while the second season was filmed in Italy.
In November 2022, TVLine confirmed that the HBO show was renewed for a third season. Ahead of the renewal announcement, White, 52, was already brainstorming ideas for the next filming location.
“I think it’d be fun to maybe go to a whole different continent. You know, we did Europe, and maybe Asia, something crazy like that, that would be fun,” the Survivor alum told Deadline in October 2022. Two months later, White elaborated more on the potential location during the HBO Max Unpacking S2 E7 special.
“The first season kind of highlighted money, and then the second season is sex,” he teased in December 2022. “I think the third season would be maybe a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality. It feels like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round at White Lotus.”
The dramedy gained critical acclaim with its first season — which premiered in July 2021 — and had a star-studded cast. It featured Connie Britton, Sydney Sweeney, Murray Bartlett, Jennifer Coolidge and more. The Legally Blonde actress went on to win an Emmy in 2022 for her role as Tanya McQuoid in the first season. Coolidge, 61, was the only original cast member to reprise her role for the second season, earning her a Critics Choice Award and Golden Globe in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
“Because the seasons are so thematically different, the locations are different, the cast is generally different, it felt like it would make sense to have somebody be the connective tissue between the two seasons. And if we went to Italy without Jennifer, she would be so mad,” White told Variety in November 2022 of why he chose to keep Coolidge on. “Obviously people loved her, and she’s my friend. So, it just made sense that it would be Jennifer.”
However — spoiler alert — Coolidge’s character met her demise in Italy and was killed off in the season finale.
“I was thinking, it’d be so fun to bring Tanya back because she’s such a great character, but maybe that’s the journey for her, a journey to death,” White recalled in December 2022 about his decision to murder the beloved character. “Not that I really wanted to kill Tanya because I love her as a character and obviously love Jennifer, but I just felt like, we’re going to Italy, she’s such a diva — a larger than life female archetype — it felt like we could devise our own operatic conclusion to Tanya’s life and her story.”
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While the season 3 location has been seemingly decided, fans are unsure who will return for the next season as the cast has yet to be announced. Coolidge, for her part, is doubtful of a potential resurrection.
“He’s an amazing friend, but I think he made his decision,” the A Cinderella Story star said to E! News in January. “He wanted a big, dramatic, Italian, you know, operatic ending for White Lotus 2, and he wanted to sacrifice Tanya.”
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