Ben Kingsley among new additions to ‘The White Lotus’ season four cast
The White Lotus has added Ben Kingsley, as well as Max Minghella and Pekka Strang, as the final cast members for the upcoming fourth series of the hit comedy drama.
The hugely popular show, broadcast on HBO and directed by Mike White, already has a massive cast of acclaimed names for the latest instalment, in which it is headed to France in order to be set against the decadent backdrop of the Cannes Film Festival.
However, Variety reports that the ensemble is now being rounded out by Kingsley, Minghella, and Strang, who will each play recurring but as yet unspecified characters.
This final settlement of casting may come as a relief, given that Helena Bonham Carter has already been axed from the series after it emerged that she and the creatives for The White Lotus “did not align” with the character that had originally been written for her.
As such, the actor has now been replaced by Laura Dern, albeit in a different role written specifically for her. She is a longtime collaborator with showrunner White, having previously worked with him on the HBO show Enlightened.
The rest of the incoming cast includes Steve Coogan, Vincent Cassel, Caleb Jonte Edwards, Dylan Ennis, Corentin Fila, Ari Graynor, Marissa Long, Alexander Ludwig, Chris Messina, AJ Michalka, Kumail Nanjiani, and Nadia Tereszkiewicz.
Further roles will be played by Chloe Bennet, Sandra Bernhard, Heather Graham, Max Greenfield, Frida Gustavsson, Charlie Hall, Jarrad Paul, Rosie Perez, Ben Schnetzer, and Laura Smet.
On the red carpet of the Bafta TV Awards in London on May 10th, Coogan was asked why Bonham Carter walked away from the show, which he insisted was a “mutual decision”.
He said that, ultimately, the decision was taken once the actor and the creatives respectively realised that “something isn’t working”, thus making room for the role to be “rewritten from scratch”.
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