More than two years after Westworld was canceled, series star Aaron Paul remains hopeful that the show will return for a fifth and final season.
Created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, Westworld premiered on HBO in October 2016 to major success, earning positive reviews from critics and fans while also becoming the most-watched first season of any HBO original series at the time. The series, based on the 1973 film by Michael Crichton, was primarily set in Westworld, a fictional, technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populated by androids known as “hosts.” The last two seasons changed the series’ setting to the real world, revealing that people’s lives are driven and controlled by a powerful artificial intelligence.
What did Aaron Paul say about Westworld Season 5?
Paul, who joined the cast of Westworld in Season 3 as Caleb Nichols, recently told ComicBook.com that Nolan has revealed to him how the show was supposed to end. “I’m still holding out [hope] . . . I have the very, very broad strokes. [Co-creator Jonathan Nolan] filled me in a little bit,” he shared. “We’re still plotting to maybe do something, I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but we really do want to have a full circle moment with that. So we’ll see.”
Westworld’s cancellation in November 2022 was seen as a shock by its fandom. Despite the later seasons seeing more mixed reviews from critics and a decline in viewership, most expected that HBO would allow Nolan and Joy the opportunity to see the story through on their terms.
Nolan previously spoke on his intentions to wrap up Westworld’s ambitious story in April 2024, stating, “Yes, 100 percent. We’re completionists. It took me eight years and a change of director to get Interstellar made. We’d like to finish the story we started.”
He continued, “In terms of finishing the story, you understand that you get the time that you get, sometimes it’s as much as you want, sometimes it’s not. I’m so fucking proud of what we made. It was an extraordinary experience. I think it would be a mistake to look back and only feel regret [over how it ended]. But there’s still very much a desire to finish it.”
Westworld is currently available to stream on Tubi.
