Warning: This story contains spoilers for Westworld season 3.
Scrap those plans to turn your Westworld plot analysis bunker into a home gym immediately.
If one of the questions the season 3 finale left you with was whether or not the show will return with more shenanigans, rest easy. Westworld is indeed coming back for a fourth season.
In its third season, Westworld showed us that its twisty narratives could take us for new kind of amusement ride, one that delved deeper into the philosophical exchanges between man and machine. What does it all portend for the future of the series? At this point, that’s still unclear. But one thing’s for sure. Like the Vera Lynn song says, “We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when.”
Here’s everything we know about Westworld season 4 so far.
What information has been released about Westworld season 4 so far?
Precious little is known beyond the fact that the series is definitely getting rebooted for another go-round.
“From the western theme park to the technocratic metropolis of the near future, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed every twist and turn from the minds of master storytellers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy,” president of HBO Programming Casey Bloys said on April 22. “We can’t wait to see where their inspired vision takes us next.”
Perhaps this comes as no surprise. Both creators wanted at least one more season, HBO programming chief Casey Bloys told Variety awhile back.
Will there be more Westworld stories to tell after that?
Beyond season 4, there will possibly be a fifth season in the works or, if the new gods allow it, a multi-season plan.
After a Comic-Con panel back in July 2019, before season 3 debuted in March 2020, Bloys told the audience that HBO had deals with the mind-melting drama’s creators, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, for two more potential installments. Citing unspecified sources, The Hollywood Reporter recently reported that we may even be in for a sixth season.
So when might Westworld come back for season 4?
Fans who can’t wait for the mind-boggling puzzle to return will have to hold their mechanical horses. Joy and Nolan both say that it will likely be another 18-20 months, roughly, before a new chapter is released. The show has stuck to a fairly consistent output schedule since its October 2016 premiere, and we should expect another waiting game. Only time will tell how lockdowns enacted to help prevent the further spread of the coronavirus will affect production across the medium. Considering the scope of the vast worlds within Westworld, it’s not hard to see why masterminding a show this ambitious takes time.
“As Jonah and Lisa will tell you, I will always say, ‘Can we get it sooner?’” Bloys told Variety. “As shows get bigger and more complicated, I think more time between seasons is probably becoming more of the norm.”
Which actors will return?
There’s no official word on who’s returning for another rodeo from the cast of characters. But no one’s ever technically really gone in Westworld. Just ask the Clementine Pennyfeather (Angela Sarafyan) hive. Your bot faves have always enjoyed making a grand re-entrance, or 20. So it’s not an outlandish assumption that all your old friends could very well be back.
Will the creators behind the project stay the same?
Sounds like it. “They are 100 percent hands on,” Bloys said of the show’s creators, according to a report in The Wrap. Addressing the news that Nolan and Joy left Warner Bros. TV for a deal with Amazon Studios, she assured fans that they remained dedidated to the dystopian show.
“We have deals with them for a potential fourth and fifth season. So the deal with them [at Amazon] is for, I believe, everything but Westworld. And they’re very committed to Westworld. So I’m not worried about losing their focus, they don’t lose focus.”
Leave it to Teddy to set our expectations high early on. James Marsden, who played Dolores’ (Evan Rachel Wood) old flame, told Entertainment Weekly that the first season was all about stage setting. “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.” So if the thriller keeps chugging along apace, sounds like this series is all part of a preconceived masterplan.
What about the plot?
There are no plot details out yet. This story will be updated with any trailers or messages out of Delos headquarters. But if you’d like to think about what could be, just look to reddit and choose your rabbit hole adventure.
