Fan-Favorite Marvel Star Almost Appeared in HBO's White Lotus

HBO's The White Lotus is known for its star-studded cast as much as it is for its gorgeous exoctic locations of liesure. In the two seasons of its run, White Lotus has brought together famous faces that are new (Sydney Sweeney, Meghann Fahy), old (F. Murray Abraham, Connie Britton, Jennifer Coolidge), and those somewhere in between (Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, Alexandra Daddario). However, in the midst of all that star power, fans may be interested to know that one Marvel movie star almost made it into the mix, as well! 

One of the breakout storylines of The White Lotus Season 2 was that of young couple Ethan (Will Sharpe) and Harper (Aubrey Plaza), who had a deep, dark, dalliance with power couple Cameron (Theo James) and Daphne (Meghann Fahy).  However, as The White Lotus executive producer David Bernad revealed to Deadine, it was originally Evan Peters (X-Men: Days of Future Past, Dahmer) who was supposed to play Ethan!

"That part [Ethan] was the last part we cast in the season, and originally it was supposed to be Evan Peters," Bernad explained. "But for whatever reason – scheduling or timing – it didn't work out. We were really trying to figure how to cast that part so it didn't feel like familiar casting." 

It's kind of wild to try to go back and re-envision The White Lotus Season 2 with Evan Peters oppostite Aubrey Plaza, instead of Will Sharpe – especially in a year where audiences would've been also seeing Peters play Jeffrey Dahmer in Ryan Murphy's Netflix docu-series (assuming the two projects would've still released in close proximity). White Lotus was definitely a breakout role for Will Sharpe (Flowers), who brought a nerdy-earnestness to Ethan that slowly evolved to reveal a darker streak of insecurity and jealousy, ultimately ending in a complicated and ambiguous "resolution" of Ethan possibly becoming the colder, selfish, wealth mogul he swore he'd never be. Like so much of White Lotus Season 2, showrunner Mike White made Ethan a deeply-layered role that required perfect nuance in its moral grayness. Sharpe delivered. 

That's no takeaway from the skills of Evan Peters, who just won a Golden Globe for his peformance as Jeffrey Dahmer – a role that took him to some of the darkest places he's gone as an actor. After something like that, a role like Ethan in The White Lotus would be a cakewalk. 

The White Lotus is streaming on HBO Max. Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is streaming on Netflix.