'The Sopranos' Star Joining Season 2 of Hit HBO Series

01/06/2022 03:21 pm EST

When the second season of White Lotus opens its doors, a familiar face to HBO viewers will be there to meet them. The Sopranos star Michael Imperioli was cast in The White Lotus Season 2 in the lead role, Deadline reported Wednesday. The White Lotus was a surprise hit for HBO and was initially planned as a limited series before its success inspired HBO to renew the show as an anthology series.

The White Lotus was written, directed, and created by Mike White (Enlightened) and centered on a group of vacationers visiting a fictional Hawaiian resort to escape reality, only to be faced with the demons they had been hiding from each other. The second season is expected to take place at a different resort and introduce a new batch of characters. The only character from Season 1 expected to return so far is Tanya McQuoid, played by Jennifer Coolidge. Sources told TVLine Season 2 might be set at a resort in Europe.

Imperioli was cast as Dominic Di Grasso, who is traveling with his elderly father and his son, who recently graduated from college. The actor is best known for his Emmy-winning performance as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos. He contributed voice-over work for David Chase's Sopranos prequel movie The Many Saints of Newark last year. Imperioli is also developing his own HBO project that is loosely inspired by his own experiences as a practicing Buddhist. He is now filming Hulu's This Fool. He recently appeared on Blue Bloods.

The White Lotus debuted in July and quickly became a success for HBO and HBO Max. Even before the finale aired on Aug. 15, White confirmed to TVLine there was talk about renewing the show. At the time, he said he "would like" to do another season with new characters and only a handful of stars from the first season.

"I don't think you can credibly have [all the Season 1 guests] on the same vacation again," White said. "But maybe it could be a Marvel universe type thing, where some of them would come back." He also noted that they only signed one-year deals with the cast, so "we'd have to find out who is even available."

Aside from Coolidge, the ensemble cast for Season 1 also included Murray Bartlett, Connie Britton, Alexandra Daddario, Fred Hechinger, Jake Lacey, Brittany O'Grady, Natasha Rothwell, Sydney Sweeney, Steve Zahn, and Molly Shannon. Bartlett and Coolidge were both nominated for their performances at the Critics' Choice Television Awards. The full season is available to stream on HBO Max.

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