The hosts have taken over the park in the first teaser for the second season of HBO’s Westworld. Despite being in production for only about a week, the network brought some footage to San Diego Comic-Con in the form of this darkly funny little teaser.
There are some striking visuals here, like the blood on the player piano, the dead tiger (??), and Dolores on a murder spree.
Though Westworld made headlines for its co-creator Jonathan Nolan claiming they’d already plotted out five seasons before the series premiere even aired, perhaps the HBO series will have a shorter lifespan. Talking at the San Diego Comic-Con panel about humanity’s ever-evolving relationship with artificial intelligence in the present, Nolan said, “The more we think about these questions, the more it feels like your mind is turning inside out. So it might be best for us after doing this for a little longer that we all just mutually agree to stop.”
Then again, he followed that up by saying, “I’ve concluded we must be in a simulation of some kind. I just did a tequila shot with Ed Harris at Comic-Con,” so grain of salt and all that.
Nolan and co-creator Lisa Joy teased some season 2 mysteries in a separate interview, including Maeve’s next steps and expanding the scope of the series to focus on the “world” in Westworld—that is, the outside world.
Other highlights from the panel:
- Lisa Joy played Red Dead Redemption as research for Westworld. Yep, checks out.
- TK
- Jeffrey Wright joked that he went on Reddit to find out who Bernard was. As for season 2? “I’m still learning exactly who Bernard is,” he said, sounding very much like the character. “Join me.”
- On actresses’ difficulties in finding multidimensional roles, Evan Rachel Wood said, “As a woman you sometimes feel your wings are clipped in being represented. This felt like having fucking condor wings.”
- When asked about which was his favorite death, James Marsden responded, “They’re like my children. I love all my deaths equally.”
- Will samurais play a role in season 2? Nolan sounded dismissive (or was he?): “It doesn’t seem like that to me.”
- The long-term plan? Transition into an actual theme park where fans are the stars, Nolan joked.
Westworld season 2 premieres sometime in 2018.
