Michael Imperioli is set to make his grand return to HBO in the near future, as Deadline confirms tonight that the Sopranos star has been set as the first major cast member to join the second season of The White Lotus. The Mike White-helmed series, which explores class, race, the perils of internet writing, and vengeance-based defecation at a series of high-cost resorts, was renewed for a second season not long after its first finished airing back in August of 2021.
This isn’t the first brush Imperioli has had with his old stomping grounds in recent months; he also reprised his role (in narrator form) as Christopher “Not Actually A Very Good Mobster” Moltisanti for David Chase’s Sopranos prequel film, The Many Saints Of Newark.
Per Deadline, Imperioli already has his White Lotus character squared away: He’ll be playing “Dominic Di Grasso,” a man traveling with his elderly father and college-age son, and who is probably a completely adjusted and healthy individual, if the show’s previous track record is anything to go by.
As we noted above, Imperioli is the first major cast member to join the show’s second season, despite rumors that the ever-wonderful Jennifer Coolidge might reprise her role from the series’ first outing. Details about White Lotus 2 are still being kept tightly under wraps—including which luxury location Imperioli and his cast mates will be hanging out at, and, presumably, getting very angry about room service or whatever.
Deadline also notes that Imperioli has his own project in the works at HBO alongside writer-producer Alec Berg; the series will reportedly be “a meta blend of fact and fiction loosely based on Imperioli’s experiences as a practicing Buddhist.” And, hey: We would have thought “a bunch of rich people complain while staying at a popular spa resort” would be a total snoozer, too, so maybe this new one will be significantly better than it sounds as well.