The White Lotus didn’t have the Emmys it expected this year, but a little thing like critical disappointment isn’t going to slow it down. In other words: forget season three, because we already know where season four is headed.

In a post-Emmys conversation with Deadline, HBO’s Casey Bloys confirmed the rumour that The White Lotus season four will take place in France. Were there any other details? No. Did he offer even the slightest indication of even a sliver of what’s to come? Again, no. But this is the internet, so let’s speculate wildly nonetheless.

Where in France exactly?

Famously, every season of The White Lotus so far has been filmed at a Four Seasons hotel. This narrows things down somewhat. The Four Seasons operates three hotels in France: one in Paris, one in Megève and one on the Côte d’Azur.

Obviously each of these locations would make for a profoundly different season of The White Lotus. You’d have to expect that the French Riviera is automatically out, since its mixture of Mediterranean climate and wealthy Eurotrash clientele put it too close to Taormina, the location of the second season.

This leaves Paris and the Alps. Now, remembering the almighty fuss that everyone made about enduring the uncomfortable weather of Thailand during the filming of season three, it would make sense that Mike White would steer clear of Megève, because that just seems like a nightmare. Not only would it be relentlessly cold, but it is also potentially dangerous. It would just take one bored actor to shatter their pelvis in a freak snowboarding accident to drag the entire production to a standstill. So Paris it is.

This in itself would be no cakewalk, though. Paris is one of those cities that risks being filmed to death, with every possible angle of every possible landmark covered in any number of existing productions. You can’t imagine that anyone would be particularly happy if an integral scene was ignored because all the viewers had decided to Google which episode of Call My Agent! was also shot there.

Plus the Four Seasons in Paris is easily one of the least visually interesting Four Seasons on Earth. Plus every single external shot will be papped to kingdom come if they go somewhere as obvious as Paris. Plus the weather might be crap. So, Paris. Unless it isn’t. Which it probably isn’t. Fine, Côte d’Azur then.

What will it be about?

So far, each season of The White Lotus has had its own broad theme. Season one was about money and class, season two was about sex and desire, season three was about religion and death. A fourth season will need to have a big, chewy theme of its own to stand up to the others. In a podcast episode towards the end of season three, White hinted that the next season would revolve around fame, suggesting that it might centre on some sort of film festival (another nod to the Côte d’Azur, potentially). However, at this point The White Lotus has been around so long that everyone already knows what the true theme of the season will be: entitled American tourists being awful to each other while having it off in ways that will make you want to bleach your eyeballs and brain.

Who’ll be in it?

Here’s where things might get interesting. Although each season is technically its own story, The White Lotus has enjoyed bleeding through whenever it can. Jennifer Coolidge was in two seasons, as was Natasha Rothwell, while Jon Gries has been in all three. Certainly the Thailand season pointed towards a future where we’d get to see Rothwell’s newly wealthy Belinda junk all her principles for a life of comfort, so maybe that will happen.

But don’t forget that Michael Imperioli’s character from season two was a film producer, so there’s a chance that he could make a reappearance at the festival. And Michelle Monaghan played an actress who everyone apparently recognised and loved, so maybe she could join him. Personally speaking I’d like to see White take a bolder step and reintroduce season one’s Armond as a ghost and have him float around pooping everywhere, but I suspect cowardice on the part of HBO will prevent this.

Still, this is The White Lotus, so there are plenty of other roles to fill. There’s bound to be a family with a dark secret, a married couple with a dark secret who will make friends with another married couple who have a similarly dark secret, and the hotel staff. These will need to be French and, if the appearance of Lisa from Blackpink last year is any hint, far too incongruously famous to play such a small part. Perhaps Kylian Mbappé can show up to play the guy who irons the towels.

How likely is any of this?

Not likely at all, since precious few details have been revealed. But since we’re probably not going to see season four of The White Lotus until 2027 at the earliest, you’ll have forgotten about all of this by then anyway. Oh well.