The White Lotus creator Mike White is heading back to the island. And we don't mean Thailand or Hawai'i to start work on The White Lotus season 4. After writing and directing three hit seasons of the HBO dramedy, Mike White has been cast in Survivor 50. But what does this mean for White Lotus season 4? Let's dig in.

When does Survivor 50 film?

According to Deadline, production will begin on Survivor 50 in June, with the all-star season expected to air sometime in February 2026. Survivor usually films for less than 2 months, and players are sequestered for the entire duration of filming regardless of how far they get in the competition. Assuming he hasn't started writing The White Lotus season 4 yet, this means that he likely wouldn't be able to get going until August at the earliest—and that's assuming he's not exhausted from, you know, trying to survive in the wilderness for 40-odd days.

There is a bright side, however. Mike is the only writer credited on The White Lotus, which means he doesn't need to be in a writers' room to hammer out the season. If he gets voted out early in the game, there is a world in which he has no choice but to spend a month writing as he waits for Survivor 50 to wrap up.

mana island december 10: are you feeling lucky? jeff probst and mike white on the thirteenth episode of survivor: david vs. goliath, airing wednesday, dec. 12 (8:00 9:01 pm, et/pt) on the cbs television network. photo is a screen grab. (photo by cbs via getty images)
CBS via Getty Images

How much of The White Lotus season 4 has Mike White written?

Now that we've established that production on Survivor 50 could delay The White Lotus season 4 by around two months, we have to look at our next data point, and that's how far along into season 4 Mike is now.

Before season 4 was even confirmed, Deadline reported that Mike had already pitched HBO an idea for another season. And, in a behind the scenes video released after the season 3 finale, Mike hinted that he already had a location for season 4 in mind. “For the fourth season I want to get a little bit out of the ‘crashing waves against rocks’ vernacular,” he said. Granted, this doesn't really reveal a whole lot about where Mike is in the process of construction season 4, but it does suggest that he has been thinking about the season for a long time...perhaps he's even written some/most of it? (Hey, a girl can dream!)

morgana o'reilly, sam nivola, charlotte le bon, patrick schwarzenegger, nicholas duvernay, parker posey, natasha rothwell, arnas fedaraviius, mike white, julian kostov, walton goggins, lisa, sarah catherine hook, tayme thapthimthong, leslie bibb, jason isaacs, shalini peiris, aimee lou wood, lek patravadi at "the white lotus" season 3 los angeles premiere held at paramount studios on february 10, 2025 in los angeles, california. (photo by michael buckner/variety via getty images)
Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images

So...what does Mike White being on Survivor 50 actually mean for The White Lotus?

There's no easy way to say this, but Mike competing on Survivor 50 will likely delay The White Lotus' next season. That said, it's hard to tell by how much—after all, fans waited a little over two years between seasons 2 and 3. Season 3 was filmed for seven months in Thailand and wrapped in early August of 2024, airing six months or so later. Rounding up, that means that a season takes 13 months to film and edit.

So, if Mike has already written season 4 and if he takes zero breaks in between filming Survivor and getting into casting for The White Lotus, then we might be looking at season 4 coming in early 2027. If he hasn't started writing season 4, then we could be looking at sometime in 2028—if we're lucky.