Why Jason Isaacs Feels “Pure Jealousy” Over ‘The White Lotus’ Season 4
These actors are saying “oui, oui” to a stay at The White Lotus resort.
HBO Max revealed several new additions to the dark comedy series’ season four cast—and the list of talent will have everyone excited to jet off to France for the upcoming installment.
As for who will be staying in the luxury resort this time around? Steve Coogan—a two-time Oscar nominee who’s starred in films like Philomena and 12 Years a Slave, as well as TV shows like I’m Alan Partridge—will officially be lodging in luxury, according to multiple outlets.
But that’s not the only new face embarking on a trip with the award-winning series. Newcomer Caleb Jonte Edwards, whose biggest credit to date is a guest role on the series Black Snow, will also be making a starring turn in season four, per the outlets.
E! News reached out to reps for Steve and Caleb, as well as HBO Max, for comment but has not heard back.
Of course, these actors aren’t the first to join the star-studded White Lotus lineup. Back in December, Hunger Games alum Alexander Ludwig and Aly & AJ singer AJ Michalka were announced as having roles in the satire.
And while details of their characters were not divulged at the time, AJ confirmed the news by cheekily writing on her Instagram Story, “Checking in.”
But the guests who will be staying at The White Lotus aren’t the only details that have been revealed about the fourth season, which has yet to be given an official release date.
The French locale has also been uncovered, with multiple outlets reporting in January that creator Mike White chose the Château de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez as its primary shooting spot.
For what it’s worth, the 19th century palace certainly fits the boujee vibe of past seasons, which were filmed in Hawaii, Italy and Thailand, consecutively. After all, the massive French property was converted into a luxury hotel in the 1920s and is now part of the five-star hotel group Airelles Collection, per its website.
Photo by Aimee Rose McGhee/Dave Benett/WireImage
Another reason the resort is a perfect fit for the show’s fictional wealthy clientele? The cost to reserve a room at the Château de la Messardière can be upwards of $12,000 during peak midsummer months.
Indeed, Mike is taking the word “exclusive” to new heights with this edition of the series, and his previous cast members are definitely taking note.
In fact, Jason Isaacs—who starred on The White Lotus‘ third season alongside Patrick Schwarzenegger, Parker Posey, Aimee Lou Wood and Walton Goggins—admitted that he’s pretty envious of the group who will be sitting poolside in France for the production.
Fabio Lovino/HBO
“Pure jealousy,” Jason told Entertainment Tonight while walking the 2026 Golden Globes red carpet Jan. 11. “I can get a train from where I live to be in France. It’s not a 15-hour flight like it was in Thailand. But the truth is, I am jealous because I’ve got friends who are going to be in it, and they’re going to have the ride of their lives.”
For everything to know about the upcoming fourth season of The White Lotus, keep reading.
Fabio Lovino/HBO
When will the fourth season of The White Lotus premiere?
HBO officially renewed The White Lotus for a fourth season in January 2025, 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.
Fabio Lovino/HBO
Where will The White Lotus‘ fourth season take place?
HBO confirmed in December that the series was headed to France, with multiple outlets confirming in January that the show’s primary location would be the Château de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez, 19th-century palace that has since been converted into a luxury hotel.
Ahead of the confirmation, series alum Parker Posey had hinted to E! News that the White Lotus guests had their eyes set on the French locale.
White and fellow producers had been dropping hints, too.
“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.”
Which actors will be in The White Lotus season four?
The Hunger Games alum Alexander Ludwig and Aly & AJ singer AJ Michalk officially joined the cast, HBO confirmed in December 2025. And it’s possible their characters may have some musical talents, since both stars have released their own albums before.
Courtesy of HBO
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.
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
“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.”
Fabio Lovino/HBO
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.”
Fabio Lovino/HBO
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.”
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