HBO infamously canceled Westworld, one of their most popular shows and possibly the most popular sci-fi drama on the network, just as the story was nearing a conclusion. Creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy had mapped out one final season that would see the game under a different game master. The duo has now moved on to create Fallout, Prime Video‘s adaptation of the popular game franchise. While promoting the new series, Nolan talked to The Wrap about this hope to bring Westworld’s story to a conclusion with one more season just as they had originally planned. Below is what he said about it.
“Our philosophy from the beginning was you make sure each installment, each chapter should be somewhat complete, tell a good story and then you get a chance to keep going. But Lisa and I did have an architecture for the series and I’m big on getting a chance to finish these things. I think our hope is still somewhere down the line [for] a chance to revisit that story, and I would hate to have spoiled it now if we get a chance to do so.”
‘Westworld’s Final Season Would Have Been Very Different
Westworld Season 4 ended on a major cliffhanger as the dynamics of the show changed. Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) entered the sublime and spun up a new narrative. Joy had previously opened up to The Wrap about what this full circle moment would have meant for the show while the show awaited HBO‘s decision on a new season.
“We always thought that ‘Westworld’ should kind of come full circle and back to the West, but with Dolores, who was just a player in other people’s games, finally getting to write her own [story]. Just to close up a lot of the stuff that we’ve seen before like the flash-forward with The Man in Black and everything, so we have a plan for Season 5 — but, you know, life can make other plans for you. So we’ll just hope for the best.”
Joy also teed up what having Dolores control the game after what she’d lived throughout the years would have meant for the show as it got a new perspective.
“. . . How often do you get to see the damsel in distress become the leader of a society? Somebody who went through what she did, I mean, look at our world now, how often does that happen and who holds power in most civilizations? It’s not a person or creature like Dolores. So to be able to see the test for what that would look like, to see how the lessons she’s learned — and she’s learned specific lessons based on her own [experience]. She was a ‘thing’ to people. She lived through countless lives and reboots where she was at the mercy of guests in a park, indulging in their vices and id. She’s seen a lot of human nature, and maybe enough to know how to structure something or give a game in which some kind of hope for it might emerge.”
Westworld was removed from Max, HBO‘s streaming service, and all seasons were licensed to free streamers like Tubi and Roku by Warner Bros Discovery. When asked if he would like to work with HBO on another project or a potential fifth season, Nolan didn’t shut down the possibility but noted that it was “too early to say.”
Fallout premieres on April 12 on Prime Video. Watch Westworld on Tubi.
via Collider