The White Lotus Creator Mike White Teases a Character in Season 3 Might 'Rival' Jennifer Coolidge's 'Iconic Performance'

Mike White is teasing what's to come on season 3 of The White Lotus.

The creator of the popular drama series opened up to Time about what fans can expect ahead of the season 3 premiere on Feb. 16. Although Jennifer Coolidge’s beloved character Tanya McQuoid will not be returning, White said he hopes fans will find the same enjoyment watching the new cast members.

“How do you go about replacing Jennifer?” he questioned. “It’s not just the creative part, but she’s a very good friend, and also a big part of the show just as a person. I’m not friends with the cast the way that I’m friends with Jennifer.”

“But there’s definitely some performances I feel rival her as far as hopefully iconic performances,” he divulged.

Natasha Rothwell, who is reprising her season 1 role as spa manager Belinda, later revealed to the outlet that everything in season 3 is bigger and better than before.

“It’s expansive. The cast is huge, the scale of the production is huge — and it needs to be to hold the story, because the story is so robust and full and layered and juicy,” she shared.

Coolidge quickly became a fan-favorite for her role as Tanya with her famous line, “Please, these gays, they're trying to murder me!” The scene led to thousands of memes and internet recreations, making it one of the show’s most iconic moments. 

When she won an Emmy for the part in January 2024, she even played into the trend, saying:  "I wanna thank all the evil gays," she joked in her acceptance speech.

Fans were disappointed when the second season ended with Tanya’s death, hoping they’d get to see more of her in the future. Coolidge said, however, that this was the way White envisioned the series going.

"Mike was looking for a big Italian opera ending, and it was big and dramatic," she said in a discussion with Jeremy Allen White for Variety in 2023. "So he wanted me to die for many reasons."

"But I also think Tanya's a lot,” she continued, joking: “Maybe people would get sick of her on another season. Maybe people would be like, 'Oh my God, get rid of Tanya!'"

White offered his own explanation for killing off Coolidge's character during an HBO Max featurette in December 2022, saying it felt like the right time for Tanya to go.

"In the end of last season, Tanya is sitting with Greg [Jon Gries] in the last episode and he's talking about his health issues and she says, 'I've had every kind of treatment over the years, death is the last immersive experience I haven't tried,'" he explained. "And 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: the journey to death."

Season 3 will show new dynamics among the vacationers: Leslie Bibb (Kate), Michelle Monaghan (Jaclyn) and Carrie Coon (Laurie) are "longtime friends" taking a trip together, Walton Goggins (Rick) and Aimee Lou Wood (Chelsea) are an oddly-matched couple and Parker Posey (Victoria) and Jason Isaacs (Timothy) are on a trip with their three children, Patrick Schwarzenegger (Saxon), Sarah Catherine Hook (Piper) and Sam Nivola (Lochlan).

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Season 3 of The White Lotus premieres Sunday, Feb 16 at 9 p.m. ET on Max.