HBO’s Westworld is ready to run for five seasons

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

HBO's Westworld raised eyebrows when production halted mid-January for showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy to finish polishing the final episodes of the season. But there's a reason the show took so long to get back on track: They were putting together an outline for not just one season, but an entire five season run.

Says Westworld star James Marsden:

It wasn’t about getting the first 10 [episodes] done, it was about mapping out what the next 5 or 6 years are going to be. We wanted everything in line so that when the very last episode airs and we have our show finale, five or seven years down the line, we knew how it was going to end the first season – that’s the way Jonah and [executive producer J.J. Abrams] operate. They’re making sure all the ducks are in the row. And it’s a testament to Jonah and Lisa and HBO that we got them right, especially the last three scripts. They could have rushed them and get spread too thin. They got them right, and when they were right, we went and shot them.

Well, maybe Abrams has learned from his time on Lost that having an endgame in mind isn't exactly a bad idea. But considering that the first episode hasn't even aired yet, let's not assume we'll be getting more than the one season for the time being. However, if it's good enough to sustain itself that long, we should all consider ourselves lucky.

In the original 1973 film: 

A lawyer and businessman are among the visitors to Westworld, a futuristic theme park where the gunhands and dance hall girls are all robots programmed to serve the guests' violent and lustful fantasies – until something goes wrong with their circuitry.

No longer the guests' obliging victim, a black-clad humanoid gunslinger turns on the two heroes. The ultimate amusement turns deadly serious as the men are pursued to a deadly climax by an implacable, unstoppable foe.

This new take on the material is:

described as a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin, exploring a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.

Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Jimmi Simpson, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Ben Barnes, Simon Quarterman, Angela Sarafyan, Luke Hemsworth, and Clifton Collins Jr. star.

You can visit Westworld on HBO on Sunday, October 2nd at 9 PM.