Science fiction and the Western are two genres that have been fused together countless times before – reworked and fine-tuned to create such beloved hits as Joss Whedon’s Serenity, Star Wars and er, Cowboys & Aliens. But with Westworld, HBO’s dark and brooding new series that’s fast approaching its October premiere, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s freshman drama brings together the past and future in every sense of the word.
Early reviews are championing Westworld as a triumphant success, too, with our own Mitchel Broussard praising HBO’s imminent series as “an intense, intellectual, and genuinely insane work of sci-fi.” If that wasn’t enough to pique your interest, we now have two new promos along with a featurette to pour over, with the latter designed specifically to shed some much-needed light on the actual premise of Westworld. There’s also a fresh peek behind-the-scenes of Nolan and Joy’s cerebral series.
At the epicentre of this sci-fi nightmare is Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), a businessman with deep pockets and a bold, potentially dangerous vision to match. And so, Ford goes about constructing the western-themed amusement park known as Westworld, but what really drums up the dramatic potential is the fact that Ford populates said attraction with robotic hosts – robotic hosts that slowly twig on to the demented, man-made reality that engulfs them.
Westworld, also starring Ed Harris, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright Tessa Thompson, will hit the airwaves on October 2. HBO has seemingly mapped out up to five seasons of the sci-fi Western, which goes some ways to explaining why production was postponed in the first place all those months ago.
Westworld is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.
