↑ A version of
Charlotte Hale
(Tessa Thompson)
returns to Delos
↓ Lena Waithe,
Marshawn Lynch,
and Aaron Paul
join the cast
WAY O U T
WESTWORLD
HBO’S SCI-FI DRAMA UPGRADES ONCE AGAIN AS THE
ROGUE HOSTS INVADE FUTURE-SHOCK LOS ANGELES
By James Hibberd
WESTWORLD IS FINISHED WITH THOSE
horses, saloons, and dusty trails.
The new season of the acclaimed
HBO drama (version 3.0, if you
will, out March 15) instead intro
duces its most frightening world
yet: our own, just a few decades
from now. It’s a future that pre
sents a different kind of scifi
dystopia, one that assumes the
continuation of some current
headlinemaking technological
trends—such as tech companies
becoming increasingly dominant
and algorithms being used to dis
cern consumer preferences.
“The idea that we’ve created
technologies that are leading us
around by the nose is not just
something in the show anymore,
it’s acutely felt in the world,” co
showrunner Jonathan Nolan says.
“So what does it look like if we
keep going in the direction we’re
going?” That’s where the android
hosts, who escaped their Wild
West theme park trappings at the
end of season 2, find themselves.
Roborevolutionary Dolores
(Evan Rachel Wood) continues to
plot the downfall of humanity
while disguising herself as a
human, except now she’s a fish out
of water in a land she doesn’t
understand. “We’ve seen the car
nage of her plan, but now we get to
see her being a bit more meticu
lous; she’s 10,000 steps ahead of
everyone,” Wood says. “But since
she has to blend in with human
beings, she has to pretend to be
more flawed and messy.” Dolores
meets a constructor worker, Caleb
(new cast member Aaron Paul),
who brings something refreshing
to show’s character roster: a legiti
mately nice human. “Caleb kind of
shines a completely different light
on humanity for Dolores,” says
Paul, who was offered a different
Westworld role years ago but
couldn’t join the show then
because of a scheduling conflict.
Robopocalypse refugee Maeve
(Thandie Newton) has somehow
been resurrected, and gets
a largely standalone adventure
in a neverbeforeseen park,
Warworld, a mockup of Italy circa
- So, yup, Maeve gets to punch
some Nazis. “She has no experi
ence in the world she finds herself,
but has to figure out her environ
ment to try and win the game—and
that’s just Maeve, isn’t it?” Newton
says. Meanwhile, Charlotte Hale
(Tessa Thompson)—or, more
accurately, a host replica of Hale
who’s presumably controlled by
Dolores—is rather ironically put
in charge of the Delos corpora
tion’s attempt to dig itself out
of the themepark PR disaster.
“She has to wrestle with the fallout
of the massacre, essentially,” says
Thompson, who would sometimes
text a line of dialogue to Wood in
the middle of the night to ask how
Dolores might say it.
Nolan notes that Delos greedily
trying to “pivot” from the mass
slaughter of hundreds isn’t
entirely unlike how Boeing han
dled its 737 Max disaster that
included two planes crashing
largely due to software problems.
“When we sat there and thought of
the most cynical version of a plot
ted element, it was impossible to
eclipse the real world,” Nolan says.
“As Dolores says, ‘I thought your
world would be so different.
There’s no difference.’ ” �
66 APRIL 2020 EW ● COM
JOHN P. JOHNSON/HBO (2)
APRIL2020.TV2.LO.A.indd 66 FINAL 3/3/20 9:22 AM