The White Lotus is swapping beach resorts for red carpets, with its fourth season set during the Cannes Film Festival.
HBO has announced that filming for Mike White’s hit series is underway on the French Riviera, and will “follow a new group of White Lotus hotel guests and employees over the span of a week, taking place during the Cannes Film Festival”.
The new season will, for the first time, focus on two White Lotus properties, with the Airelles Château de la Messardière serving as the “White Lotus du Cap” and the Hôtel Martinez appearing as the “White Lotus Cannes”.
Unlike previous seasons, which used Four Seasons properties as stand-ins for the fictional resort, the latest instalment moves away from that approach after reports in October that HBO had not renewed its marketing partnership with the hotel group.
Filming is set to take place primarily across Cannes, Saint-Tropez, and Monaco, with additional shoots in Paris, although the story itself will remain focused on the Côte d’Azur.
Plans for a France-set season had first emerged in September 2025, with reports the following month that the production was scouting locations across Paris and the French Riviera.
A source familiar with the production told Variety that filming will take place on location throughout the Cannes Film Festival, with cast members expected to attend for three or four days during the second week and to “walk the red carpet at least once”.
It is unclear whether filming will overlap directly with official festival events. This year’s Cannes Film Festival is scheduled to run from 12 to 23 May 2026, with new films from Asghar Farhadi, Pedro Almodóvar, Ira Sachs, and Hirokazu Kore-eda. Festival organisers have also announced honorary Palme d’Or awards for Barbra Streisand and Peter Jackson, with Park Chan Wook serving as jury president.
The Independent has reached out to HBO for comment.
The official ensemble cast for the fourth season includes Helena Bonham Carter, Vincent Cassel, Steve Coogan, Caleb Jonte Edwards, Dylan Ennis, Corentin Fila, Ari Graynor, Marissa Long, Alexander Ludwig, Chris Messina, AJ Michalka, Kumail Nanjiani, and Nadia Tereszkiewicz, although their roles have not yet been disclosed..
Additional cast members include Chloe Bennet, Sandra Bernhard, Heather Graham, Max Greenfield, Frida Gustavsson, Charlie Hall, Jarrad Paul, Rosie Perez, Ben Schnetzer, and Laura Smet.
The new season will welcome back creator Mike White as an executive producer and writer of the series, alongside David Bernad and Mark Kamine.
The White Lotus premiered in 2021, with season one centred in Hawaii, season two in Italy, and season three in Thailand. Each season follows a new group of wealthy vacationers staying at the fictional White Lotus hotel and their interactions with each other and the staff in the lead-up to a generally shocking death.
The third season, which aired last year, featured a star-studded cast of Carrie Coon, Parker Posey, Aimee Lou Wood, Walton Goggins, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Natasha Rothwell, Leslie Bibb, Sam Rockwell and LISA. It earned 23 Emmy nominations at the recent ceremony, including acting nods for Coon, Posey, Isaacs, Wood, Goggins, Rothwell, Rockwell, and guest star Scott Glenn.
The season aired to mixed reviews, with The Independent’s Adam White giving the last episode three stars, calling it a “violent end to a bad season”.
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