‘White Lotus’ Composer Says He Won’t Return for Season 4 After Creative Clash With Mike White: We’ve ‘Had Our Last Fight Forever’

Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, the acclaimed composer of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” said he won’t be back for Season 4.

In an interview with the New York Times, the three-time Emmy winner said he and creator Mike White had different visions for the show’s theme song, which started in Season 1 and intensified during production of the currently airing third season. For the show’s first two seasons, Tapia de Veer’s eery theme song contributed to the show’s unsettling atmosphere with strange sounds including a recurring “ooh-loo-loo-loo” chorus. But the “ooh-loo-loo-loos” were cut for Season 3, igniting confusion.

This season, the composer said White had in mind more of “background music … a song that is more like something you would listen to in Ibiza, in some clubby place with a chill, sexy vibe.” Ultimately, for Season 3, the theme song became more of a traditional lounge tune (sans the “ooh-loo-loo-loos”), which has divided fans of the show.

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“I texted the producer and I told him that it would be great to, at some point, give them the longer version with the ooh-loo-loo-loos, because people will explode if they realize that it was going there anyway,” Tapia de Veer told the Times. “He thought it was a good idea. But then Mike cut that — he wasn’t happy about that.”

“I mean, at that point, we already had our last fight forever, I think. So he was just saying no to anything,” he continued. Variety has reached out to HBO for comment.

“I announced to the team a few months ago that I was not coming back, that I was leaving,” Tapia de Veer said of exiting the show. “I didn’t tell Mike for various reasons; I wanted to tell him just at the end for the shock and whatever. Except I told the whole editorial team and music editor and producer and all that, but I didn’t think that they were going to tell him. At some point he heard about that.”

Tapia de Veer said he received so many complaints about this season’s score that he posted his uncut version of the song on YouTube. He also compared his experience working on the show to a “rock ’n’ roll band story.”

“I was like, OK, this is like a rock band I’ve been in before where the guitar player doesn’t understand the singer at all,” he said.

He also joked that his working relationship with White made him think of the cult 1978 French movie called “La Cage aux folles” starring Michel Serrault and Ugo Tognazz.

“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,” said Tapia de Veer. “To me, the show felt very much like that.”

The Season 3 finale of “The White Lotus” is set to air this Sunday and will span nearly 90 minutes, according to the HBO schedule. Season 3 cast members include Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb, Natasha Rothwell, Carrie Coon, Scott Glenn, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Aimee Lou Wood, Sarah Catherine Hook, Sam Nivola and Blackpink member Lisa.