Westworld Cancelled at HBO After Four Seasons
In a move that almost no one saw coming, HBO has cancelled Westworld after four seasons. This news comes after series co-creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have been vocal about wanting to wrap up the entire narrative with a fifth and final season. In a statement provided to THR, HBO writes: "Over the past four seasons, Lisa and Jonah have taken viewers on a mind-bending odyssey, raising the bar at every step. We are tremendously grateful to them, along with their immensely talented cast, producers and crew, and all of our partners at Kilter Films, Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television. It's been a thrill to join them on this journey."
Kilter Films, the production company created by Nolan and Joy, issued their own statement as well, adding: "Here's Kiltner films statement: "Making Westworld has been one of the highlights of our careers. We are deeply grateful to our extraordinary cast and crew for creating these indelible characters and brilliant worlds. We've been privileged to tell these stories about the future of consciousness – both human and beyond – in the brief window of time before our AI overlords forbid us from doing so."
In recent days, Nolan and Joy have expressed positive feelings toward the potential for finishing the series, which has faced a decline in viewership and critical interest as it has continued to air on the premium cable network. Of note as well is that the pair went on to form an overall deal at Amazon Prime Video which has resulted in them currently producing an adaptation of the hit video game series Fallout for the rival streamer. All four seasons of Westworld are now streaming on HBO Max.
Why did Westworld get cancelled?
The cancellation of Westworld may come as a shock to fans who expected the series to get to finish out its run, it did manage to get a fourth season renewal after the ratings dipped below a million viewers per episode in season three. But the regime change at Warner Bros. Discovery after the merger of the two companies has resulted in a signiciant amount of debt needing to be paid off.
The result of this has been many shows being cancelled, projects being scrapped entirely like the Batgirl movie, and shows removed from HBO Max for underperformance. Speaking during yesterday's investor call, Jean-Briac Perrette, President & CEO of Discovery Streaming & International, seemingly set the stage for the cancellation of Westworld without calling out the show individually. He said:
"The audience will tell you what they love, they'll spend time with it. They'll watch it and rewatch it and you can see it, you could see it on cable, and free to air in terms of the ratings, and we could see it on (HBO) Max in seeing exactly what people spend time with. And we look at it, and we look at it hard. If we have a scripted show that's $7.5 million dollars. And it's getting a 0.03 ...We're very committed to scripted, but we want to measure what people are watching and what they're not. If a repeat of Two and a Half Men or Big Bang Theory does three times the ratings of another season that we greenlit of a show that's costing us seven and a half million dollars, we're going to cancel that show."
Westworld's fourth season averaged a live rating within the 0.31 to 0.39 range, which isn't to say he was referring to the Emmy-winning series, but the timing of that comment and today's cancellation don't seem like a coincidence.