Westworld: James Marsden Returning for Season Four

HBO’s hit drama Westworld took the stage at ATX Television Festival today with a panel dedicated exclusively to the upcoming fourth season, and it used the opportunity to drop some major news. Confirmed at the event was that none other than James Marsden will return to the series, his character Teddy having been absent since he took his own life in season two. It’s unclear what circumstances will allow for Teddy to return, or if Marsden will even be returning as the same character. Among the other news confirmed at the panel is that star Evan Rachel Wood will be playing yet another new character.

Speaking on the panel, Marsden opened up about his return, saying: “Sometimes you have to go away to come back,” Marsden said. “We learn to speak cryptically on this show. This has been 7 years of our show and yeah, it’s an amazing thing to be a part of and see where the story goes. From the beginning, I didn’t know where it was all gonna go but I’m glad to see it now.”

Marsden returns to a cast that also includes Emmy winner Thandiwe Newton, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Luke Hemsworth, Aaron Paul, and Angela Sarafyan. Newcomers that will appear in season four include Oscar winner Ariana DeBose, Aurora Perrineau, and Daniel Wu.

In addition to Marsden’s Teddy returning, details were also revealed about Wood’s new character. Series co-creator Lisa Joy Nolan confirmed that, as we all suspected, Dolores died in season three. Now Wood will be taking on the role of Christina, a writer living in New York City.

“She’s a normal woman living in a big city just trying to make it as a writer. Nothing ever happens to her, really. I think that’s all I can say,” Wood said at the event. “I was told that Dolores was meeting her rather tragic end in Season 3, so I had some convos with [co-creator] Jonathan [Nolan] and Lisa at the time about what that meant. They said, ‘Yeah, you’ll be back this season and you’ll look a lot like Evan Rachel Wood but I’m not me.”  

Westworld was created for television by Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy, who are executive producers with Alison Schapker, Denise Thé, J.J. Abrams, Athena Wickham, Richard J. Lewis, and Ben Stephenson. Season four of the series will premiere on HBO on Sunday, June 26.