Westworld Creators Debunks Six Season Plan Rumors

Following the confirmation of Westworld‘s fourth season renewal last month, reports have been circulating that HBO’s critically-acclaimed sci-fi series will only run for six seasons. However, in a recent interview with Variety, when asked about the rumored six-season plan for the series, creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy were quick to clarify that the rumors aren’t true. They further explained that they haven’t even really talked about the number of seasons because at the beginning they didn’t realize difficult it was to make the Westworld and also considering how much time it would take per season.

“Well, I just want to clarify, you know, Lisa and I have never actually talked about a number of seasons.” Nolan said. “James Marsden mentioned five [seasons] in the first season when we were on hiatus, and more recently there’s been reporting about deals and other stuff like that. But we’ve never actually talked out loud about how many seasons we imagine this thing going, because I think you’d be foolish to. Things change, circumstances change. I think when we sat down to do the show, we didn’t quite realize how difficult it would be to make this show — [laughing] how many years it would take per season. So we’ve never actually talked about how many seasons that plan was, and indeed I think when we had the plan it didn’t actually map out to a specific number of seasons, exactly. It was a beginning, a middle and an end.”

“When you have a show going like this, you want to stay as long as you’re telling a compelling story. We’re heading towards that end, but we haven’t completely mapped it out. At this point, part of the work is looking at the rest of the story we have to tell.” He added. “It’s two impulses, one against the other. You don’t want to walk away from people who are as talented and cool as this. They’re all lovely, lovely people, and they love working together, we like working together. At the same time, you don’t want to outstay your welcome. You have a story to tell, and you want to go out without feeling like you’ve outstayed your welcome. So we’re trying to balance those things a bit.”

Westworld Season 3 will include newcomers for the series include Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Lena Waithe (Ready Player One), with NFL player Marshawn Lynch, and Vincent Cassel (Black Swan, Eastern Promises). They will be joined by returning cast members Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Luke Hemsworth, and Rodrigo Santoro in the series.

Pick up Season 2 of the HBO show here!

A dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the birth of a new form of life on Earth, the Emmy-winning Westworld was created for television by Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy, who are also executive producers with J.J. Abrams, Richard J. Lewis, Roberto Patino, Athena Wickham, and Ben Stephenson.

Based on the film written by Michael Crichton, Westworld comes from production companies Kilter Films and Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.