The White Lotus Composer Reveals He Won't Return For Season 4 After Clashes With Mike White; 'Have Fun With Whatever You're Doing Next' White Replies

A longtime White Lotus guest appears to be checking out of the franchise for good.

Composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, who has provided the score and theme song for all three White Lotus seasons thus far, shared in a New York Times interview that he won't be back for Season 4. Tapia de Veer chalked up his exit to creative differences with series creator Mike White, which he said dated back to the HBO satire's first season in 2021.

"It's kind of weird right now because I announced to the team a few months ago that I was not coming back, that I was leaving. I didn't tell Mike for various reasons; I wanted to tell him just at the end for the shock and whatever," Tapia de Veer said on Wednesday. "There was a French movie, La Cage Aux Folles. You know how there's Albin, which is like the star, and there's Renato, who is the producer who is always taking care that Albin doesn't lose his mind about something, because Albin is the diva and Renato is the guy who is trying to make everything work. To me, the show felt very much like that."

He also compared his time on the show to "a rock 'n' roll band story," calling the experience with White and other White Lotus producers "like a rock band I've been in before where the guitar player doesn't understand the singer at all."

According to Tapia de Veer, he and White repeatedly clashed over their visions for the show's music, including the memorable theme songs. In Season 1, for instance, White had initially used a temporary score that Tapia de Veer said had "literally no edge to it... it's just nice background music," and it took some convincing for White to use the "loo-loo"-heavy theme that Tapia de Veer later composed.

"I just stuck to what I was doing," he continued. "And when I was giving versions, it was still the same thing: There were still crazy people and screaming and stuff like that. From there, it became this weird relationship of, How do I pass all this weird music into the show?"

Tapia de Veer ultimately called his White Lotus years "a good struggle" that left him with a sense of pride.

"I was watching the Emmys, and it's like, there's one thing I'm pretty proud of and that is I feel like I never gave up," he said. "Maybe I was being unprofessional, and for sure Mike feels that I was always unprofessional to him because I didn't give him what he wanted. But what I gave him did this, you know — did those Emmys, people going crazy."

TVLine has reached out to HBO for comment.

UPDATE: During his appearance on Howard Stern's Sirius radio show Tuesday, White responded to what Tapia de Veer alleged. "I don't think he respected me," White said, per a THR.com report. "I knew he wasn't a team player and that he wanted to do it his way. I was thrown that he would go to The New York Times to s—t on me and the show three days before the finale. It was kind of a bitch move."

White acknowledged that the composer was "very talented" but also that he'd had to flatter him to get him to do what was needed. "Have fun with whatever you're doing next," White said.

The White Lotus wrapped its Thailand-set third season on Sunday. (Read a full recap.) HBO renewed the show for Season 4 in January, but there's been no word on where those episodes will take place.