Elizabeth Banks wants to play a murder victim on HBO‘s The White Lotus.
The actress-producer spoke about her dream role on Live With Kelly and Mark Friday while promoting the new animated movie Migration she stars in, which was written by The White Lotus writer, director and executive producer Mike White four years ago, before he embarked on the hit HBO murder mystery series.
“I want to be murdered so badly on The White Lotus,” she said. “Kill me. Please, kill me. I don’t know how it happens but…,” Banks said before getting interrupted by Ripa who implored her that she had to do it, prompting Banks to say, “Tell him!,” referring to While.
Ripa obliged, turning to the camera to say, “Mike White, please put your friend Elizabeth Banks in White Lotus season 3 or 4. We’ll take either one.” (You can watch the exchange below. For the record, the series has been renewed through Season 3.)
As Deadline reported last month, The White Lotus started casting for its upcoming third installment immediately after the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike on Nov. 9.
There has been a lot of activity since, with the producers sending offers to several well known stars and reading a lot of actors. So far, no new cast members have been locked in and set to join Season 1’s Natasha Rothwell. She is reprising her role as Belinda in the Thailand-set third season, which will follow those that are vacationing at a resort there.
As Deadline reported, thirteen roles are casting, nine of them series regulars — ranging in ages between 18-80s — with a patriarch, a corporate executive, an actress, a couple of mothers, a misfit and a yogi in the multi-generational group.
Filming is tentatively slated to begin in early February in Thailand.
“It’s going to be a supersized White Lotus,” White said about Season 3 last month. “It’s going to be longer, bigger, crazier. I don’t know what people will think, but I am super excited, so at least for my own barometer, that’s a good thing.”
It is unclear whether this means that the number of episodes would increase again after going up from 6 in Season 1 to 7 in Season 2.
Originally targeted for 2024, Season 3 is “likely moving into 2025” due to the strikes, Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO and Max, said last month.
Following the Season 2 finale of The White Lotus last December, White said that Season 3 will explore “death in Eastern religion and spirituality.”
Said HBO’s head of drama Francesca Orsi in May, “It’s an exploration about spirituality versus the ego. And it’s set against the Eastern religion.”
