Mike White

What would you do if your prestige HBO drama won huge audiences and five-star reviews all round? You probably wouldn’t kill off the fan favourite, the one who embodies all its comedy and tragedy in a performance of genius that revived her career at a stroke. Especially when she also happens to be one of your best friends.

But you’re not Mike White, you didn’t write The White Lotus and, although we’d all like to be, you’re not best friends with Jennifer Coolidge.

Some sparse clips give us a few glimpses at the Thailand branch of the eponymous luxury resort, where the new series is set. They also welcome some new guests, as well as reintroducing a familiar face from series one.

Leslie Bibb (Jupiter's Legacy), Dom Hetrakul (Bangkok Dangerous), Jason Isaacs (Lucis Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise), Michelle Monaghan (True Detective), Parker Posey (Lost in Space) and newcomer Tayme Thapthimthong will be joining the returning Natasha Rothwell for the Thailand-based instalment.

Filming will take place in and around Koh Samui, Phuket and Bangkok, where the drama will follow a new group of guests at another luxurious White Lotus resort.

White privilege, sexual identity and racial dynamics were among the themes served up alongside the infinity pools and swanky cocktails at an uber-luxurious Hawaiian hotel in the first season of Mike White’s lacerating satire, the Emmy-garlanded The White Lotus.

In season two, which began at the end of last month, the location switches to sun-soaked Sicily. Once again, we are in the company of a group of rich Americans holidaying in a luxury hotel and trying their hardest to make paradise work for them.