Where Will It Film? A Few Clues

The White Lotus finished season three on a grisly note on Sunday, but we all hope to check back in for a new season soon — no one more so than HBO executives. But first, creator and showrunner Mike White could probably use a vacation of his own. It’s unclear if he’d choose a (surely) comped Four Seasons stay or stay far away from the luxury hotel chain he’s called both “home” and “set” for the past few years.

Though scouting for a season four location has not even begun, that’s not stopping us from doing a little bit of our own research, reporting — and yes, our own guessing — on where the next five-star murder will be staged. We didn’t get much help from those involved in the show or the location partnership, but there are some bread crumbs that helped inform our predictions, like:

“Mike just wouldn’t want to be in the cold,” The White Lotus producer David Bernad told The Hollywood Reporter just a few weeks ago for a cover story. “He hates it.” At the time, White himself said something like Paris would feel “like a cop-out.”

OK, so no cold and no Paris. There are more than 130 Four Seasons resorts and hotels, and we just eliminated a handful.

“We’ll be deferring to HBO for any details or commentary around the upcoming season and filming locations,” a spokesperson for the Four Seasons told THR. Reps for HBO did not respond to a request for comment on this story. (We warned you there wouldn’t be a ton of official participation.)

Just because White doesn’t want to bundle up for season four, that doesn’t automatically mean he’s sticking to the oceanfront formula. On the official White Lotus podcast following Sunday’s season finale, White said he’d “want to get a little bit out of the crashing waves of rocks vernacular.”

Subsidies to host the fourth season will likely play a major part in the decision. The production received tax credits for each of the previous installments that shot in Hawaii, Italy and Thailand. On top of a tax incentive of at least 30 percent for shooting in Italy, Sicily offers a separate subsidy of up to 20 percent of costs to shoot on the island.

White Lotus producer Dave Bernad said on The Bill Simmons Podcast that the production was initially planning to film in Southern France but opted for Italy after HBO asked to consider the Four Seasons in Taormina, Sicily due to generous incentives to shoot there.

And the choice to shoot in Thailand was made after it approved in 2023 changes to its scheme that allowed productions to get 30 percent back, which would equate to roughly $4.4 million for the second season of the series. These regions offer exotic locations rarely seen in films and TV shows, as well as lower costs for labor and favorable exchange rates.

If producers are looking for a change of scenery, certain parts of Norway outside of winter could work if they’re willing to abandon their partnership with the Four Seasons, which doesn’t have a hotel in region, though the luxury resort company is launching a yacht this year that may pass through. The production applied for and was granted roughly $7 million to shoot the third season, which went by the name “Secret Garden,” in the country but ultimately passed in favor of Thailand, reported Norwegian newspaper Bergens Tidende last year. It’s easy to imagine a Force Majeure-esque plotline in which the central death revolves around a Hollywood bigwig abandoning his wife as an avalanche approaches.

Another possibility: Japan, where White was scouting for the third season before Thailand lured the production away with generous subsidies. The country in 2023 unveiled an incentive scheme offering reimbursement of up to 50 percent of qualifying expenditures in the country, with a cap of $6.4 million. It’s already drawn Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins and Tokyo Vice. Notably, Japan has been opening up areas that few productions have ever been granted police permission to shoot, including Akasaka’s Esplanade, a nightlife strip known for hundreds of bars and hostess clubs packed into narrow mid-rise buildings that’s near many of Tokyo’s most important cultural and political sites. Tokyo Vice was offered unprecedented access to its capital’s neon-lit underbelly for the series. This may be a selling point for White.

“Mike White is a very close friend of mine,” Johnny Knoxville told Vulture. “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.”

Of course, he’s quite literally a jackass.

Last year, travel advisor Nick Cosinteno of Live Luxe Travel Co. made the exclusive top 10 list in the Four Seasons Partner Program, an invitation-only program that allows the top agencies in the luxury, five-star space to book Four Seasons properties. Advisors are ranked by the revenue and nights booked for the Four Seasons. If season four does shoot in Japan, Cosinteno would guess it’s at Four Seasons Kyoto or Osaka.

A big fan of the show, Cosinteno predicted that season four will be filmed “somewhere closer to the U.S.” He’s personally betting on Mexico, which is just across a gulf of whatever the hell you wanna call it. Cosinteno’s frontrunner is Tamarindo, which offers seclusion and the amenities of a new resort. It also offers “direct beach access, private infinity pools and spectacular ocean views,” per the website.

“If you look at it, the design aesthetic is beautiful and very recognizable,” Cosinteno told THR. “I think it definitely could play into some of the themes that we’ve seen so far in the show.”

There’s just one problem: oceans tend to have crashing waves. Cosinteno does not see White pivoting at this point to a city hotel.

Sticking with his Mexico guess nonetheless, a second option is the gated luxury-resort world of Punta Mita. We’re still waterfront here, as is Cosinteno’s next guess: Four Seasons Anguilla.

Four Seasons Resort Anguilla would make it “very easy” to do the show’s trademark “boat-arrival experience,” Cosinteno said, adding that “the way the resort is laid out would also be conducive to the show.”

You know what’s close to the U.S.? The U.S. Cosinteno doesn’t see that happening, but as White told THR just a few weeks ago, he hasn’t “been home in three years.” Los Angeles is out (“What, you want to be driving to Burbank on the 405? Fuck off,” White said of the production. “This is a life experience.”)

Still, White has expressed choosing a location that would benefit from hosting the fourth season. His home state of California — specifically L.A., where he lives and cut his teeth as a writer — fits the bill. Amid a global production crunch and the flight of titles away from the area and toward regions that give more subsidies to the entertainment industry, the region is experiencing a historic filming slump that’s left a chunk of Hollywood’s behind-the-scenes workers without steady employment.

“Where we choose to go next could be hugely impactful [to that locale]. That’s why it was so cool to shoot in Thailand,” he told THR.

At a Sunday rally for the “Stay in L.A.” initiative, which calls for emergency measures to restore local filming, SAG-AFTRA secretary-treasurer Joely Fisher called on White Lotus producers to shoot the fourth season in L.A.

When pressed for a few American options, Cosinteno suggested Palm Beach or The Surf Club (Surfside, Florida) as having the right “vibes” for the show. If White could get over the whole cold-weather aversion, Cosinteno suggested Four Seasons Jackson Hole — but he thinks it “would be drastically weird and different” for The White Lotus to leave the tropics behind.

The “most logical” option (but “too easy of a pick” for the show is Maldives, Cosinteno said, where every resort is its own private island. So many crashing waves.

Other possibilities include Australia, Ghana and South Africa, all of which offer subsidies to host productions. “My dream would be to hit every continent, so yeah, this is like its own continent, basically,” White said at Sydney’s Vivid Festival. “We kind of have to come to Australia if we keep going.”

Head here for all of THR’s season three coverage, including our uncensored oral history with White and the cast, breakdown of the finale and finale interviews with Jon Gries, Scott Glenn and Aimee Lou Wood.