Oh man. Westworld brought itself back online in a wonderfully unexpected way just before HBO aired the Game of Thrones finale. That was the best way to experience it, without knowing it was a trailer for Westworld Season 3. The trailer started with Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul in a futuristic setting, mumbling in a voiceover. It looked like it was going to be a dark personal exploration, just a new drama show following Paul. And then ... at the very end, we got the connection to Westworld as Evan Rachel Wood's Dolores appeared.
Surprise! A light version of the Westworld theme kicked in, and we got the note that Westworld Season 3 will be coming in 2020.
Some fans are busy making Jesse Pinkman Breaking Bad jokes, of course, but this seems to have renewed excitement for Westworld Season 3.
I have to say, I needed that. Westworld Season 2 didn't look like anything to me, which was not necessarily the show's fault. But it felt like the confident, controlled storytelling of Season 1 got lost in Season 2. This promo showed Westworld squarely back in charge of the storytelling.
We got you. Again.
It was already revealed that Aaron Paul would be joining Westworld Season 3, so there was that hint going into the trailer, if you remembered that detail. Lena Waithe, and Vincent Cassel were also announced to be joining the cast.
Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy haven't shared too much about the new season, but Nolan did talk about the "radical shift" to come, and we already got a big hint to that in this trailer:
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.
Westworld Season 2 ended with Dolores and Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) escaping Westworld for the real world. The first trailer gives us a glimpse of Dolores out in the world, and shows how she meets Aaron Paul's character. It remains to be seen how central Aaron Paul's character will be in Season 3. Maybe that was trailer-only footage, just to clue us into the tone and structure of Season 3? We'll have to see.
Westworld Season 2 was hit with backlash, but the HBO boss brushed it off as not a big deal. For every critic, there was someone who loved it. Kinda sounds like the final season of Game of Thrones in that respect.
As this first trailer noted, Westworld III is coming in 2020. We should expect a full trailer, beyond this wonderful announcement, coming later.
