While fans have been disappointed that Jennifer Coolidge won’t be returning for The White Lotus season 3, no one has been more upset than the actress herself.
“People are asking me if I’m in it. I can honestly say, to this moment, no one has even mentioned it to me,” Coolidge, 62, told Today on Wednesday, February 7. “I think I’m dead. I think I’m dead right now and may be dead forever.”
During the shocking season 2 finale, which started streaming in October 2022, Coolidge’s character, Tanya, hit her head on the side of a boat as she fell into the ocean to her demise.
While creator Mike White had previously played coy about whether Tanya would make a return during season 3, Coolidge doesn’t think it’s likely.
“I’m jealous of everyone that’s going. I just want to stress I’m not a good sport about it, but there’s nothing I can do,” Coolidge said. “When they kill you, you have to accept it. Because it means they’re not calling for your costume sizes or anything. It’s over! I have to get another thing. I have to make another thing happen, I guess.”
She continued, “But am I sad? I just want to say in all honesty, I’m very sad I’m not in it.”
Coolidge, who starred in both seasons 1 and 2 of The White Lotus and won an Emmy for her role, added that she “had a blast” during her time on the series. She teased that the highly-anticipated 3rd season is “going to be good.”
“There’s going to be all sorts of good stuff in it, probably great sex stuff,” Coolidge said. “You know how Mike White writes — it’s never, never a dull moment. I think he’s going to slay with this one.”
While the show has remained tight-lipped with details, season 3 is set to be filmed in three cities in Thailand, including Koh Samui, Phuket and Bangkok, which Coolidge noted is a “great place” for the series. The cast includes new faces played by Leslie Bibb, Michelle Monaghan and Patrick Schwarzenegger, as well as season 1’s Natasha Rothwell.
“I promise everyone it will be riveting, whatever he writes,” Coolidge said.
White has previously explained his decision to bring Coolidge’s character back for season 2 — only to kill off her character.
“At the end of last season, Tanya is sitting with Greg 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 said in HBO Max’s Unpacking S2 E7 special. “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, a journey to death.”
He continued, “Not that I really wanted to kill Tanya because I love her as a character and obviously love Jennifer, but I just felt like, we’re going to Italy, she’s such a diva — a larger than life female archetype — it felt like we could devise our own operatic conclusion to Tanya’s life and her story.”
