With HBO premiering The White Lotus season three on Feb. 16, stars including Jason Isaacs, Leslie Bibb, Aimee Lou Wood and Natasha Rothwell may look familiar.
Get ready to do a double take.
Because yes, that really is Lucius Malfoy leaving the Wizarding World behind for a stay at The White Lotus.
Jason Isaacs—who played Draco Malfoy’s father in the Harry Potter franchise from 2001 to 2011—is just one of the actors making their The White Lotus debut when season three premieres on HBO Feb. 16. And considering he traded his blonde locks and wizarding robes for a dad ‘do and khakis—not to mention dropped his British accent for a Southern twang—Isaacs is nearly unrecognizable in his role as Timothy Ratliff, described as a “wealthy businessman vacationing with his wife and three children.”
Horror fans will recognize Posey from her role as Jennifer Jolie in Scream 3 and Hook as Debbie Glatzel from The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.
As for the next gen heartthrobs? Schwarzenegger has plenty of experience in the spotlight as the 31-year-old son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, while Nivola—whose parents are Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola—rose to fame playing Will Winbury on The Perfect Couple alongside Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber.
For Posey, being a part of the ensemble cast was a true “experience.”
“We all worked in another country for almost seven months, a cast of 11 actors,” she told E! News correspondent Will Marfuggi at the premiere. “It was wild. It felt like an experiment. These things change your life. I got a massage in Thailand for $30.”
But the biggest star of all just might be Lalisa Manobal (born Pranpriya Manobal), better known as Lisa, who joins Jisoo, Jennie and Rosé as K-pop’s explosive Blackpink, which has become the most followed female group on Spotify and the music group with the most subscribers on YouTube, according to the Recording Academy.
So, why would Lisa make the jump to TV? Well, the 27-year-old described herself as a “huge fan” of The White Lotus long before the show made the move to her native Thailand.
“I almost cried,” she told E! of getting the part. “I was in the car with my family and I didn’t tell them that I auditioned for the role… They’re so happy for me.”
Curious where you’ll recognize the rest of The White Lotus cast? Read on.
Lalisa Manobal
How you like that? The singer known mononymously as Lisa went from being a rockstar on world stages as part of K-pop group Blackpink—alongside Jisoo, Jennie and Rosé—to donning the White Lotus staff uniform for her big debut as Mook.
Jason Isaacs
Looks like Lucius Malfoy missed the train to Hogwarts and instead landed at The White Lotus. That’s right: He may look different without the luscious blond hair, but the Harry Potter star is returning to the screen as another uppity father figure, playing Timothy Ratliff, described as a “wealthy businessman vacationing with his wife and three children.”
Isaacs has also made more recent appearances on TV shows like Robot Chicken, The Great and Sex Education (alongside his White Lotus costar Aimee Lou Wood.)
Parker Posey
Don’t scream when you see it, but Posey—who plays Timothy’s wife Victoria Ratliff—may look familiar from her movies Superman Returns, Blade: Trinity, Scream 3 and Dazed and Confused. She’s also had brief stints on such TV shows as Parks and Recreation, New Girl, Portlandia and Search Party.
But the real rom-com fans will know her from the 1998 classic You’ve Got Mail, in which she played Joe Fox’s (Tom Hanks) girlfriend Patricia Eden.
Patrick Schwarzenegger
While you may know him best from family photos as the son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, he has already made a name for himself acting in Gen V, The Terminal List and The Staircase before playing Saxon Ratliff in season three.
Sarah Catherine Hook
Prior to taking on the part of the Ratliffs’ daughter Piper, Hook got her feet wet in the horror and fantasy genres, portraying Debbie Glatzel in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Juliette Fairmont in First Kill and Elena Milak in Monsterland.
You may also know her from the 2024 Cruel Intentions remake as Caroline Merteuil or from the Ryan Murphy cinematic universe, in which she played Catherine Allday Davis in Impeachment: American Crime Story about the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Sam Nivola
Nivola—who is dating Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann‘s daughter Iris Apatow—rounds out the Ratliff family as young Lochlan. But before hitting the shores of Thailand, he was in another show about a rich family at the beach: The Perfect Couple, playing Will Winbury, the son of Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber‘s Greer and Tag Winbury. He even costarred on the Netflix drama with White Lotus alum Meghann Fahy, who appeared as Daphne Sullivan on season two of the HBO show before playing Merritt Monaco on The Perfect Couple.
Nivola has also acted in White Noise with Adam Driver, Maestro with Bradley Cooper and With/In with Anne Hathaway.
Natasha Rothwell
Of course, White Lotus fans will recognize Rothwell from season one, in which she played spa guru Belinda in Maui. Not only is she reprising the part for season three, but the actress has also graced the screen in Insecure, Wonka, A Year and Change and Love, Simon. Plus, she lent her comedy chops to Saturday Night Live as a writer from 2014 to 2015.
Leslie Bibb
The Iron Man alum is assembling to play Kate in The White Lotus after portraying Christine Everhart in the Marvel franchise. More recently, she starred in Palm Royale as Dinah Donahue and Jupiter’s Legacy as Grace Kennedy-Sampson.
Carrie Coon
The Gilded Age star—who may also look familiar from The Sinner, Fargo and The Leftovers—steps into the role of Laurie, who joins pals Kate and Jaclyn for a girls’ trip in Thailand this season.
Michelle Monaghan
While Monaghan plays TV star Jaclyn on The White Lotus, she’s also a TV star IRL, having been on True Detective, Bad Monkey, Messiah and The Path. On the big screen, she’s starred as Julia in Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Angie Genaro in Gone Baby Gone.
Walton Goggins
You’ll feel justified in knowing that it’s not all in your head—Goggins really does look familiar. In addition to starring in two Quentin Tarantino movies (playing Billy Crash in Django Unchained and Sheriff Chris Mannix in The Hateful Eight), he is also known for being Boyd Crowder in Justified from 2010 to 2015.
Aimee Lou Wood
The English actress joins the cast in season three as free-spirited Chelsea, who has an age-gap romance with Goggins’ character Rick Hatchett. Yet, she is best known for her role as Aimee Gibbs on Netflix’s Sex Education and also appeared in Seize Them! and Daddy Issues.
Lek Patravadi
Tayme Thapthimthong
Christian Friedel
If 13 minutes wasn’t enough time to figure out where you recognize the German actor, allow us to refresh your memory. He played Rudolf Höss in The Zone of Interest, Reinhold Gräf in Babylon Berlin and Georg Elser in 13 Minutes.
Source: www.eonline.com