Review Westworld (2016)

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“Westworld” Showrunners Talk Season 2 Plans


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Production on the second season of HBO’s sci-fi series “Westworld” is about to get underway next month with Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s series set to undergo a slight time jump in terms of story.

Appearing on Variety’s Remote Controlled Podcast, the pair spoke about plans for the second season which will not only deal with the events at the end of the first season, but will explore more of how the park came to be. Nolan says:

“I think the sacrifice he [Ford] makes at the end of the first season is very real. I think there will be an opportunity to explore a little bit more of the backstory of how this park came to be, a little more of that story. We’ll see the character’s presence will be felt in that sense in terms of filling in a few more of the gaps about the early history of this place.

It’s an ambitious season. We always knew that we wanted the stakes and the scope to increase dramatically and that means the scale of production increases as well. We have an amazingly talented group of writers, directors, and crew coming back and gearing up for what I think and what I hope will prove to be a season twice as ambitious as the first one.

Joy expects fans to do what they did last year, and examine every minute detail of the season on the likes of Reddit and other boards where they’ll come up with their own theories:

“For us, even though we’re creating it as we go along, we feel like we owe it to the fans to be bold and also to play this game with them where we’re like, ‘Do you want to figure it out? Do you want to play with us here? Hopefully now, because of the first season, the people who want to have this purist interpretation of the series, they’ll just develop their own theories in a vacuum – and maybe don’t log on to Reddit.”

Both Joy and Nolan are still bemused by the way those who discussed and explored the show in great detail in the forums figured out a key twist in the final episode weeks ahead of time – an in effect set-up their own disappointment:

Nolan: “When you’re working on a show like this where there are layers and there are details and you try to make every piece count, you’re hoping that people will engage on that level. In our wildest dreams, we didn’t expect the level of fan engagement and dialogue, which is why you do it… [like] that moment when they figured out the plot twist for episode ten 42 minutes into episode two.”

Joy: “It wasn’t like there were surprises that we’re trying to keep from the audience consciously; we were trying to lead a path of breadcrumbs. We anticipated that a small group of the audience might discover it, that that will be part of the game that we were playing with these die-hard fans. What we didn’t anticipate was that they would go to social media and talk about it and they would get circulated so that it hit a wider base of people who have an online presence and pick that up. There were also people who were still in for the surprise like my parents – I managed to surprise them.”

“Westworld” returns to HBO in 2018.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Two New Regulars Join “Westworld” S2


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Jonathan Tucker (“Kingdom”) and Neil Jackson (“Sleepy Hollow”) have both joined the cast of HBO’s “Westworld” for its upcoming second season.

Tucker will recur as Major Craddock, a commanding military officer. Jackson will play Nicholas, a charming and resourceful man who finds himself in uncharted territory.

The pair joins previously announced newcomer Katja Herbers while both Louis Herthum and Talulah Riley have been upgraded to series regulars.

HBO hasn’t yet confirmed which cast members from the first season will be returning. Production on the new season begins this month.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“Westworld” S2 Gets Three More Faces


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“Vikings” scene stealer Gustaf Skarsgard, “Tyrant” star Fares Fares, and “Get Out” actress Betty Gabriel are all set to join the second season of HBO’s sci-fi drama “Westworld”.

Skarsgard plays Karl Strand, a white-collar guy comfortable in the field, while Fares will play a tech expert with both serving as series regulars. Gabriel will recur in a role of a WW employee trying to restore order on the ground.

The trio join other newcomers including Katja Herbers as a regular, Jonathan Tucker and Neil Jackson in recurring roles, and first season recurring actors Louis Herthum and Talulah Riley who have been upgraded to regulars.

“Westworld” recently began production of its second season ahead of an early 2018 premiere.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Sanada Scores Key “Westworld” S2 Role


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“The Wolverine,” “Life” and “Sunshine” actor Hiroyuki Sanada has joined the cast of the second season of HBO’s sci-fi western drama “Westworld” in a major recurring role.

Sanada will play Musashi, a character who will be a part of the previously-revealed Samurai World offshoot briefly glimpsed in the first season finale.

Other newcomers this season include Gustaf Skarsgard (“Vikings), Fares Fares (“Tyrant”), Betty Gabriel (“Good Girls Revolt”), Katia Herbers (“The Americans”), Neil Jackson (“Sleepy Hollow”) and Jonathan Tucker (“Kingdom”).

“Westworld” is slated to return to the network early next year.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Ben Barnes Returning For More “Westworld”

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Last seen naked and tied to a horse galloping off into the sunset in the wilderness at the end of the first season, actor Ben Barnes has confirmed to Screen Rant that his character of Logan is coming back for the upcoming second season of HBO’s sci-fi series “Westworld”.

It was thought both arrogant rich prick Logan and Jimmi Simpson’s more timid William wouldn’t return for the new season as co-showrunner Lisa Joy has previously indicated that stories set across multiple time periods are unlikely. However Barnes says not only has he been contacted to return, but he’s already been on set: “I definitely have heard because I can tell you that I have been on set at least once already.”

This suggests we will see the earlier “Westworld” timeline again, though how much of it is unclear. Filming on the second season kicked off during the Summer, but one of its two units halted production recently reports EW due to a medical emergency involving a performer in a recurring role. The cast member was not on set when it occured, but the name is being kept under wraps.

The second season of “Westworld” is expected to hit the air sometime well into 2018.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“Westworld & “Jurassic” Viral Sites Tease


In the wake of their Superbowl ads on the weekend, viral sites related to both the second season of HBO’s “Westworld” and Universal’s upcoming “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” have gone online.

The “Westworld” site, www.DelosDestinations.com, teases six separate ‘worlds’ with Westworld being just one of these. The second consists of forested rocky mountains and is very likely to be Samurai World which was briefly glimpsed at the end of the first season. The remaining four remain ‘unopened to the public’.

As for the “Jurassic World” site, it’s for the fictional non-profit organization Dinosaur Protection Group (dinosaurprotectiongroup.com) run by Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard). The group is dedicated to establishing and protecting the rights of all living dinosaurs. It also goes into the background of some of the new characters.

The second season of “Westworld” will premiere on HBO on April 22nd. “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” opens June 22nd.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
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Westworld

Shogun World. That’s the official name for the feudal Japan-themed park in “Westworld” that was glimpsed in the first season finale and is expected to appear more in the new season. As only the initials SW were seen in the finale, the most commonly speculated name for it was SamuraiWorld. Shogun is a term applied to military commanders in feudal Japan.

It’s not clear how much of this second world we’ll see. It has been confirmed Delos Incorporated owns six theme parks in all with West World and now Shogun World being the only two revealed so far. The original film teased a Roman World and Medieval World as well, but neither has been confirmed for the new series.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“Westworld” S2 Episodes To Run Long


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Fans are gearing up for the second season premiere of HBO’s “Westworld” this coming Sunday and in a new interview with EW, showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy confirmed that some of the episodes will have a super-sized running time.

In order to accommodate the large scope of the story, episodes in the new season will be extended every now and then. It has become a common practice for normally one-hour long cable drama series ranging from “Game of Thrones” whose S7 finale was 81 minutes, to “Sons of Anarchy” whose final season effectively had an extra half-hour on many of its episodes.

Nolan says the premiere of “Westworld” S2 clocks in at a little over 70 minutes, the fourth goes just over an hour, and the finale is: “just going to keep going and going – it’s a bit of an epic.” The show’s first season had eight episodes clocking in just under an hour while the premiere and finale ran 68 minutes and 90 minutes respectively.

Early reviews of the first five episodes have called special attention to the longer fourth episode as a clear standout. “Westworld” returns April 22nd on HBO.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“Westworld” S3 May Not Air Until 2020

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Just a few days out from the second season premiere of HBO’s sci-fi western “Westworld” and talk is already turning towards the third season and when we might see it.

Following a pattern proving more common these days with highly buzzed about shows such as “Stranger Things” and “Game of Thrones,” there was a gap of eighteen months between the first season of “Westworld” (premiering October 2016) and the second (premiering April 2018).

Now it looks like the same will happen again for the third season as co-showrunner Jonathan Nolan spoke with EW and alludes that the length of the gap is in discussion now as he and fellow showrunner Lisa Joy reportedly want a longer time for development and production between seasons. That means it could go beyond eighteen months and push S3’s airdate from late 2019 to early 2020:

“It’s an ongoing conversation with our friends at HBO, and for us, with a show of this scope and scale, we’re not interested in doing the compromised version. We want the show to get bigger and bigger and more ambitious and this takes time. We want to take all the time we need to get it right.”

Nolan also won’t say how long he thinks the show can run but does acknowledge they have a definitive end in mind and that each season is designed in a way to be partly self-contained:

“When we wrote the pilot we thought we’d get a bit further [into the story during season 1] than we did. The shape of the season emerges as you get down to writing. We want to feel like the show is rocketing ahead, and want to be fearless. We have an idea about how this breaks down but it’s not so much the number of seasons but the ambition of the story we’re telling.

To that end, we don’t like to endlessly build mystery. We like to settle our debts by the end of the season. We view each season as a self-contained chapter and the questions [raised at the start of each season] are largely answered by the end of each season. We want each season to feel satisfying the way a film franchise feels satisfying with each film. We want you excited to come back after 18 months but that you haven’t been left hanging on the edge of a cliffhanger – that doesn’t really feel fair to the audience.”

Lisa Joy meanwhile spoke with the outlet and cleared up one lingering mystery – yes the hosts take a dump:

“The hosts are basically organic. It’s cheaper that way to print them out. They eat, they sleep, they have sex, they can poop. It’s really like a human body with the one difference being where we have a brain, they have a CPU.”

“Westworld” returns to screens on April 22nd with ten new episodes running weekly.
 

McQualude

Member: Rank 3
I'm about 1/2 way through S2, excellent television. End of S1 and beginning of S2 were getting to be the Dolores Show but thankfully Showtime pulled back quickly and focused on other characters. Dolores is interesting but Evan Wood isn't leading lady material. She's a good actress but lacks experience and can't carry the show. I guessed all the major twists in S1 except one, which I feel was the biggest one ...
William;
and that's all I'll say just in case. I would definitely put this in my top 10 tv shows, where exactly I'm not sure yet.
 

McQualude

Member: Rank 3
Does anyone here watch new series? It seems like it's just old tv show discussion.

Well I finished S2 and what a disappointment. It started bad and ended worse, but mid season was good. Probably won't watch S3 unless they hire new showrunners, which won't happen.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“Westworld” S3 Undergoes A ‘Radical Shift’


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While the first season of HBO’s “Westworld” was met with universal acclaim, the sci-fi show’s second season received a more mixed response – the show deliberately going out of its way to follow unexpected tangents and chart a course that made the lives of those who enjoyed dissecting it on Reddit a living hell.

Don’t expect that to change with the next season as showrunners and creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy tell THR that viewers can expect a ‘radical shift’ in the world of the series when the new season including a whole bunch of action taking place outside the park. Nolan says:

“I think it’s a radical shift. What’s compelling and appealing about these characters is that they’re not human. As we said in the show, humans are bound by the same loops the hosts are, in some ways even smaller. You couldn’t expect human characters to withstand and survive the kind of story that we’re telling. The hosts have a different version of mortality, a different outlook. I think clearly with Dolores, as she’s laid out, there is a longer view here, a larger set of goals. They’re existential. They span eons. And that’s a fascinating level of story to engage in.”

Lisa Joy adds that they have a clear plan regarding where the show is headed, including a very specific idea about what they plan to do with Tessa Thompson’s character:

“We always knew that we were going to do this reveal and let her expand into this new role. We have a very diabolical arc for her planned out. Part of the fun for the character will be self-realization. She will be realizing the things we know about who she is.”

There’s no word as yet regarding when we’ll see the next season of the series.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“Westworld” Set Burns Down In CA Fires


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With wildfires sweeping across California at the moment, and with more than 150,000 people evacuated, some filming locations are being impacted as well with one of the latest being Paramount Ranch – a historic ‘western town’ used for TV and film production in Agoura Hills outside of Los Angeles.

The National Park Service, which oversees Paramount ranch, tweeted the statement today: “We are sorry to share the news that the #WoolseyFire has burned Western Town at #ParamountRanch in Agoura. We do not have any details or photos, but it is our understanding that the structures have burned. This area is an active part of the incident and we cannot access it.”

HBO’s “Westworld,” which is not currently in production, used the set to shoot its Main Street scenes while the church that’s featured in the series was actually built on the ranch. The show’s primary location is at Melody Ranch in Santa Clarita, the same place being used by the cast and crew of the “Deadwood” telemovie currently in production. So far that location is unaffected by the fires.

Paramount Ranch has served as a filming location for nearly 500 films and television shows, including the popular TV series “Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman” which used the facility full time for five years along with other shows such as the under-appreciated “Carnivale” and classic westerns like “Gunsmoke”.

The Malibu, Calabasas and Agoura areas are all under evacuation at present due to the fires, with “Doctor Strange” filmmaker Scott Derrickson home already lost in the blaze and Guillermo del Toro’s Bleak House estate with his vast horror-related collection is also reportedly at risk.
 
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