The White Lotus Producers Wrote 6 Pretend Endings to the Present (Unique)

You actually by no means know what is going to occur relating to The White Lotus.

Forward of the April 6 finale, curiosity about how season 3 of the HBO hit will finish has led to quite a lot of fan theories and hypothesis. In an unique interview with PEOPLE, government producer David Bernad reveals he and present creator Mike White had a backup plan to make sure the present maintains its signature shock issue.

“We’ve pretend endings to the scripts,” he explains. “So we wrote up — now we have six completely different endings — and we type of distributed pretend endings to individuals simply in case somebody leaked something, after which let’s imagine there’s completely different pretend endings.”

“After which once we shot the ending scene, it is a locked down set,” he continues. “So nobody actually has entry to what we had been capturing and there could be no non-White Lotus members ever seeing what we’re doing.”

Once they began capturing season 3, Bernad says there have been “three secrets and techniques” to maintain: the way it ends, Jon Gries’ return (after presumably killing Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya in season 2) and Sam Rockwell’s multi-episode arc.

As a way to maintain these secrets and techniques, Bernad shares the “nice lengths” they went by means of.

“Jon was actually dedicated to retaining the key,” he says. “And once we had been touring and entered Thailand, he, one time, rode with the gear in a bus, as a substitute of flying the 45 minutes or no matter it was. I believe he drove like, 12 hours from Phuket to Bangkok.”

“However we had been capturing on the 4 Seasons, a scene with Jon Gries, and there was individuals wanting and filming from a room,” he says, noting that the crew instantly hopped on harm management. “They did not know that what they had been filming was delicate, and I used to be actually scared they had been going to put up it. So I had the lodge supervisor go and produce them over to the set and I type of schmoozed them and acquired them on my aspect.”

Bernad says he first “casually” advised they delete the video, however simply to verify the key was secure, he additionally introduced them to “hold on set.”

“[We] had been like, ‘We acquired to make them a part of the expertise,’ in order that I may get them to delete all of the footage that they had,” he recollects. “They unknowingly did not notice they had been filming one thing that was very delicate.”

The surprises all through the collection are sacred as a result of that has largely been what makes The White Lotus so thrilling for viewers to observe, Bernad provides. 

“Each season, individuals give me the identical suggestions,” he explains, saying viewers typically name the early episodes “sluggish.”

“But it surely’s all world-building and character-building. The rationale individuals are so invested and are so emotionally moved by all of it is due to that world-building and sluggish construct. It is like an amazing novel. You bought to get individuals invested and linked, after which the trip begins.”

“Folks solely keep in mind the ending,” he jokes. “The finale, I believe I am actually pleased with.”

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The season 3 finale of The White Lotus airs Sunday, April 6 at 9 p.m. ET on Max.