First look at Ed Harris in HBO’s Westworld series; Jonah Nolan talks plans

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

A little over a month ago we got our first look at Ingrid Borso Berdal from the upcoming HBO series "Westworld", and today we finally get a peek at Ed Harris from the show as well as word from producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy about their plans for the 'dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.”

First up is a look at Man's Man and always badass actor Ed Harris in character from "Westworld". This is one cowboy I wouldn't wanna tangle with. Check it out:

EW spoke with Nolan and Joy about "Westworld", which is also being produced by JJ Abrams, making it naturally one of the most secretive TV series ever made. The producers are looking to explore some very sweeping, dark and increasingly timely future-shock ideas, and Nolan and Joy spoke about how the show came to be and what we can expect.

Nolan shared…

(JJ Abrams) called us last summer and explained that he wanted to figure out how Westworld could be remade. In that usual Michael Crichton fashion, he never wrote anything that was just a film — there was always a massive world behind it that could be mined. Lisa and I thought about it a little bit, and came to the realization this had literally everything that we’re interested in in one series. We couldn’t say no.

Joy went on to explain how they will take the original storyline—androids run amuck in futuristic theme park—and convert that into a weekly series, sharing…

The glory of doing it as a series is that you get to kind of dance in the little spaces that were left unexplored. In a film, you only have a finite amount of time, and you’re so concerned with saying what happened and making it a gripping short story with a satisfying ending. But in a TV series, you can really take a novelistic approach and explore characters that you wouldn’t ordinarily see, in a level of complexity that you wouldn’t ordinarily get to explore just out of the sheer time constraints in a feature. I think we’re very much looking forward to taking all those possibilities and exploding out.

Nolan goes on to explain how the "Westworld" park runs, stating…

People who come into this place are looking for—and this is the irony of it—the authentic experience. They’re looking for not the virtual version, but the real version, the tactile version. Interestingly we’ve arrived at what [the original film] created—fully immersible virtual worlds. Look at Grand Theft Auto or any of these wholly imagined open-world video games. They are beautiful. They’re perfectly immersive and brilliant and filled with narrative turns … “What happens in Westworld stays in Westworld.” It’s a place where you can be whoever the f–k you want to be and there are no consequences. No rules, no limitations.

Nolan also says that the series will touch on the darker side of humanity and technology.

Picture the things that keep you up at night—human behavior, artificial intelligence—any of those things that trouble you, worry you. That is exactly what the show is about. We are hoping to exploit all of those anxieties…  We’re incredibly excited about it, both on the narrative level and on a cinematic level.

The show is executive produced, written, and directed by Jonathan Nolan and also written/executive produced by Lisa Joy. “Westworld” also stars Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Miranda Otto, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Angela Sarafyan, and Simon Quarterman.

No air-date has been given for the show yet, but expect it sometime this year.