Parker Posey may not be meant for an uncomfortable life, but she’s glad Mike White is.
After all, the White Lotus creator—who had a memorable run on Survivor in 2018—is slated to compete on the special 50th season alongside other series legends including Colby Donaldson and Jenna Lewis Dougherty. And naturally, Parker was excited to hear the news.
“I smiled real big,” Parker told E! News in an exclusive interview at the Gotham Awards June 2. “I love that. He’s incredible. I love that spirit.”
As for how she would do on the nature competition series? Parker definitely relates to her White Lotus character when it comes to any attempt at “surviving.”
“I would do…badly,” she joked. “I don’t like competition. I’m not into it. I don’t like games.” (For more from Parker and other Gotham Awards attendees, tune into E! News tonight, June 3, at 11 p.m. ET.)
For Mike, though, Parker understands the allure.
“I think his writer mind really loves to be on Survivor,” she posited. “To go to Survivor and kind of get back into his body like real time with cameras and contestants. It makes sense. I can’t wait to see it.”
And while Parker is against the concept of joining the reality series, she’s more than happy to sign on to White Lotus season four when the time comes.
“Oh yeah,” she gushed when asked if she’d be interested in signing back on, noting she still keeps in touch with Mike and Sam Nivola, as well as others from her season. “We’ve all been traveling around but we’re still kind of connected.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time Parker has emphasized that North Carolina matriarch Veronica Ratfliff was her dream role.
“It’s so rare that you can read something with an entire cast and this great ensemble, and I really felt for these people,” she shared on a March episode of Seth Meyers’ late night show. “Because you feel like you know them. And then there’s that excitement because you’ve seen the first season, and the second season of these people that he writes—and you know you can’t really trust anyone.”
And when she was finally cast on the series herself, it was an opportunity she couldn’t believe she received.
“I was so excited,” she added. “I read all eight episodes in one sitting and it was such a ride.”
Keep reading for more on White Lotus season four…
—Reporting by Emily Curl
When will the fourth season of The White Lotus premiere?
HBO officially renewed The White Lotus for a fourth season in January, weeks before the third season premiered and after series creator Mike White pitched ideas for another go-round of moneyed murder and mayhem.
“Mike, obviously—if he wants to move forward and do the four seasons—he will do the fourth season,” HBO CEO Casey Bloys told reporters in November.
Production on season four will likely kick off in 2026, according to Variety.
Where will The White Lotus‘ fourth season take place?
Though there have been reports that the fourth season is heading to France, White and fellow producers haven’t yet confirmed their season four destination themselves. But they’ve been dropping hints.
“We’re going on some locations scouting in the next couple of weeks, so we’ll know soon,” executive vice president of HBO Programming Francesca Orsi told Deadline in February. “I can’t really say where we’re going to land but chances are somewhere in Europe.”
Chances, she emphasized.
There are “some countries on the map that we talked about,” Orsi added, “but nothing to report on until they actually go locations scouting.”
White said in an interview for HBO that ran after the April 6 season three finale that he was looking to “get a little bit out of the ‘crashing waves against rocks’ vernacular” for next season.
“But,” he added, “there’s always room for more murders at the White Lotus hotels.”
White also mentioned Australia as a dream destination while he was in Sydney at the Vivid Festival in June 2023.
“It would be so fun,” he said. “Obviously, there’s a huge wealth of talent here and the beauty is inarguable, so it feels like it checks all the boxes.”
Really, the possibilities are endless, almost: A body in the snow has yet to be a plot point on the series, but a fancy ski resort may not be in the cards. Producer David Bernad told The Guardian in February, “Mike doesn’t like the cold.”
The White Lotus Theme Song May Sound Different in Season 4
Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, the Emmy-winning composer behind the White Lotus title themes, will not be back for season four, citing creative disagreements with White dating back to the show’s first season.
“It’s kind of weird right now because I announced to the team a few months ago that I was not coming back, that I was leaving,” Tapia de Veer told the New York Times in an interview published April 2. “I didn’t tell Mike for various reasons; I wanted to tell him just at the end for the shock and whatever.” (White did find out before season’s end, he said.)
As for the instantly catchy theme music he wrote for season one (that also opened season two), “You see it afterward, and it’s a success,” Tapia de Veer said, “but to get there is quite the struggle” because White “didn’t want the theme.”
And no one told him to retool the opener for season three, he said, but he did—much to fans’ loud consternation.
“When that came out, I had TMZ calling me, even people from England and from France, because they wanted some kind of statement about the theme,” Tapia de Veer said. “People are furious about the change of the theme, and I thought that was interesting. I texted the producer and I told him that it would be great to, at some point, give them the longer version with the ooh-loo-loo-loos, because people will explode if they realize that it was going there anyway. He thought it was a good idea. But then Mike cut that—he wasn’t happy about that.”
The composer added, “I mean, at that point, we already had our last fight forever, I think. So he was just saying no to anything.”
On The Howard Stern Show April 8, White called it a “b–ch” move” for Tapia de Veer to air his grievances like that.
“I honestly don’t know what happened,” White said, “except now I’m reading his interviews because he decides to do some PR campaign about him leaving the show. I just don’t think he respected me.”
They “never really even fought,” the producer continued. “He says we feuded…It was basically me giving him notes.”
Their collaboration “did work” during the first two seasons, White said, because they shared ideas. By season three, Tapia de Veer “didn’t want to go through the process with me, he didn’t want to get notes from me, he didn’t want to go to sessions.”
And, White added, “He’s definitely making a big deal out of just a creative difference.”
Will Gary Return for Season 4 of The White Lotus?
White was pleasantly shocked that Jon Gries, who played Tanya’s mysterious suitor Greg in season one and her calculating husband in season two, agreed to come back to play nefarious widower Gary in season three. But Gries said Gary’s (a.k.a. Greg’s) ship has sailed, as far as he knows.
However, that’s what he thought last time.
“I don’t think [I’m coming back], but I don’t know so,” he told The Hollywood Reporter after season three ended with Gary’s secret safe for now. “All I can say is, every time I leave, I assume it’s over.”
And yet despite the appeal of having all new guests at each resort—”I can burn down the house at the end of every season,” White told The New Yorker, “and start building again”—the show has proved that, if you aren’t dead…
“There’s no trying to predict anything Mike White does,” Gries admitted to THR. “I never presumed I’d be in season two. Same for season three. Everything he does has an element of surprise to it. Yes, I would love to come back. But does the book on Greg seem like it’s complete? I can’t tell you.”
Will The White Lotus Find Some Way for Tanya to Come Back?
Short of a White Lotus prequel or multiverse situation, there’s really no vehicle for Jennifer Coolidge‘s Tanya to return except in a flashback or dream sequence. But the hope has remained ever since her unfortunate tumble from a yacht in the season two finale that revealed her to be the premiere’s mystery body after being the only returning character from season one.
White has admitted to missing Coolidge’s presence, but hasn’t questioned his decision to kill off the well-intentioned but gullible and obscenely wealthy Tanya.
“He sort of sticks to his guns,” Coolidge said of White on E! News in January 2023 after the season two finale. “He’s an amazing friend, but I think he made his decision. He wanted a big, dramatic, Italian, you know, operatic ending for White Lotus 2, and he wanted to sacrifice Tanya.”
Confirming she definitely wouldn’t be showing up in Thailand for season three, she told The New Yorker, “I don’t think Tanya’s ever coming back, so I have to live with it.”
