Francesca Orsi Talks “Incredible” ‘White Lotus’ Season 3 & Surprising Continent Show May Be Headed Next As She Previews HBO ’25 Drama Slate
HBO pulled all the stops with a glitzy Thailand-themed premiere event Monday night for the upcoming third season of The White Lotus, Mike White’s social satire anthology wrapped into a murder mystery. It was a throwback to the network’s signature must-attend elaborate shindigs of years past while still reflecting the recent tragic events, with Thai restaurants impacted by the fires catering the afterparty.
The White Lotus, along with the rest of HBO’s drama series output, is overseen by EVP Francesca Orsi, the longtime top HBO programming executive whom both White and Orsi’s boss, Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, acknowledged onstage Monday.
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She spoke with Deadline at the afterparty about Season 3 as well as the already greenlighted Season 4 of The White Lotus, including where the next installment may be set and whether it would be an all-star affair. She also teased the upcoming seasons of The Last of Us and The Gilded Age; new series Task, from Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby; and the rest of HBO’s 2025 drama lineup including new Game of Thrones prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and looked ahead to House of the Dragon, Euphoria‘s 2026 returns and a new True Detective in 2027.
‘The White Lotus’ Season 3
Being of Italian descent, Orsi is allowed to be a little biased when evaluating the three installments of The White Lotus set in Hawaii, Italy and Thailand. But she did not hesitate listing Season 3 as the anthology’s best yet.
“I called Casey after the finale, and I said, I don’t know how Mike could ever top what he’s achieved here,” she said. “It is an incredible season of television, a piece of cinema. He’s outdone himself exponentially, I’m really blown away by what he’s accomplished with this. Each season always has something to say but there’s a profound quality about this season that feels unlike anything else he’s explored. It’s a tall order for the future.”
For a show that thrives on surprise twists, Season 3 already has topped the previous installments in the surprise department by managing to keep a key casting secret. But fans who come for the show’s trademark rich-people-behaving-badly high jinks are in for a lot more this time.
“The magnitude of how Mike challenges our sheer and primal existence, our walk on the planet is explored,” Orsi said. “There’s a deeper interrogation that you have with yourself in terms of your need for materialism, consumeristic culture and the essence of being. So get ready!”
‘The White Lotus’ Season 4 Location
Ever since The White Lotus‘ Season 4 renewal became official last month, rumors have been swirling about where it may be set, with countries in Africa and Latin America among the options circulating online.
In yet another signature White Lotus twist, the show may divert from its original trajectory of going to a new continent each season by revisiting an old one, literally the old continent.
“We’re going on some locations scouting in the next couple of weeks, so we’ll know soon,” Orsi said. “I can’t really say where we’re going to land but chances are somewhere in Europe.”
She quickly hedged her answer by saying that a return to Europe was “likely,” adding that “some countries on the map that we talked about, but nothing to report on until they actually go locations scouting.”
The White Lotus has been working with the Four Seasons chain whose hotels double as White Lotus resorts. There are plenty of European locations to choose from, including a pretty famous one in the French Riviera. (The options are narrowed down if While wants to keep the island setting of the first three seasons.)
‘White Lotus’s Early Early Renewal
While the show’s Season 4 pickup was not announced until last month, it had been a foregone conclusion for months. Orsi recalled her and Bloys discussing continuing the series with White while visiting Thailand during Season 3’s production there.
“We were in Phuket, we were together at dinner, and, just as we were talking about the future, Mike’s like, What do you all think about, would you be interested in making more? We’re, well, if you want to make more, we’re here. Really, as long as Mike has something to say, I think we’ll be behind.”
Bloys in December confirmed that when he was visiting Thailand for the Season 3 shoot, White pitched his concept for a fourth season and added that if White wants to do a fourth season, HBO will do a fourth season.
Going Beyond 4 Seasons & All-Star Edition
A former Survivor and The Amazing Race contestant, White has spoken about potentially taking a page out of reality competitions’ rulebook and do an all-star season of The White Lotus featuring the return of standout characters from various installments. Could that be Season 4?
“I don’t think that’ll be Season 4, but that’s still on the horizon,” Orsi said. “It’s still in discussion but it’s too early.”
So does that mean that The White Lotus, which White writes, directs and executive produces, could go beyond four seasons?
“I imagine he is going to go beyond four,” Orsi said. “He hasn’t confirmed it, but I think he has more to say than just one more season.”
HBO’s 2025 Drama Slate
The White Lotus is kicking off a lineup of new and returning original drama series.
“Then we go into The Last of Us; we have a lot to say and do with Bella Ramsey, Pedro Pascal as well as Kaitlyn Dever and some other new players in the cast,” Orsi said. “And then we roll into Julian Fellowes’ Gilded Age. Then, Task, Brad Ingelsby’s new show that’s for the fall, which is incredibly exciting.”
‘The Last Of Us’ Season 2
Orsi spoke about the upcoming seven-episode second season of the Emmy-winning post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us, which is set to premiere in April, more than two years after the Season 1 debut, and what fans may be surprised by.
“There’s certain elements in terms of the various factions that are competing for survival that reveal themselves as a really intriguing survivalist group, and I think they just have a quality to them that feels distinct in how they present it,” Orsi said. “There’s a certain way [the show] is presenting them in wardrobe and makeup that feels really different than the average person.”
‘The Last Of Us’ End Game
In a Deadline interview last year, The Last of Us co-creators/executive producers Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann revealed that their plan for telling the story in Part II of the popular video game the series is based on will require the series adaptation going to at least three and more likely four seasons. That remains the case, Orsi said.
“We don’t have a complete or final plan, but I think it’s looking like four seasons. I wouldn’t want to confirm that, but it’s looking like this season and then two more seasons after this and we’re done.”
‘The Gilded Age’ Season 3
Orsi also teased Fellowes’ New York period drama The Gilded Age entering a new era in its upcoming third season.
“I think, broadly, it’s an interesting way in which we’ve explored that era of how divorce came to the forefront in United States relationships,” she said. “I think that there’s a conversation to be had about arranged marriages, and if it doesn’t necessarily work, what divorce looks like in that time, and what that bodes for society. And then whether you’re accepted in society or not, based on a divorce.”
‘A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms‘
The adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s three Dunk and Egg novellas, done on a smaller, more “intimate” scale than the other Game of Throne series, is still on track for a three-season run, with a renewal likely, Orsi said.
“You’re going be so impressed by Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell as Dunk and Egg, the two leads,” she said. “So much so that we’re already planning on how do we build this for the three seasons in total. We’re not picking it up officially, but it’s looking very good.”
She also revealed that there is a “promising” new GoT spinoff in the works that “is still the Targaryen line.”
Philly Man Brad Ingelsby’s New ‘Task’
In his follow-up to Mare of Easttown, Ingelsby created and executive produces Task, about an FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) in the working class suburbs outside of Philadelphia who heads a task force to put an end to a string of drug-house robberies.
Orsi thinks that Mare of Easttown fans “will be really pleased” by Ingelsby’s new limited crime series.
“He’s such an incredible storyteller,” she said of the Pennsylvania native who is under an overall deal at HBO. “It’s too early to say, but if we could be in business with Brad on an ongoing series within the world of Philadelphia, which he knows inside and out, we would be in his business with him for perpetuity.”
HBO Drama: 2026 And Beyond
After Task ends its run, “we roll into new series It and Industry and a couple of new projects for 2026, one of which is called DTF St. Louis from Steve Conrad whom you may know from The Patriot, super talented, singular in voice and sensibility,” Orsi said. “We are going to start shooting there in a couple of weeks.”
It, based on Stephen King’s horror classic, is one of several high-profile, Warner Bros.-IP based titles that relocated from Max to HBO, along with the Harry Potter series, The Penguin and Dune: Prophecy.
As for the provocatively titled DTF, the limited series starring Jason Bateman and David Harbour is about a love triangle among three adults experiencing middle-age malaise that leads to one of them ending up dead.
Also on deck for 2026 are the third seasons of House of the Dragon and Euphoria.
The new installment of the Game of Thrones prequel will kick off with the Battle of the Gullet, held over from Season 2.
“I’m so glad we waited because it’s going to be better than ever,” Orsi said. “It’s just so massive, we needed the time to build it.”
As for Euphoria, Orsi addressed the notion that the series’ much-delayed third season would be its last.
“We’ve talked about it, I don’t think anything is over until it’s over, but it’s been discussed that this is the end,” she said.
In any case, “I think you will be very satisfied with this season, and how we bring each of the characters’ whole narrative,” Orsi added.
The next installment of True Detective, which is now being written, will go for 2027. It’s set in Jamaica Bay, NY, Orsi said, adding, “It’s a different milieu [than Night Country] but just as powerful.”
True Detective is one of several HBO drama series targeting a 2027 run.
“We’re building everything now for the future,” Orsi said. “Right now we’re really doubling down on what’s [for] 2027.”
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