HBO’s Westworld is coming to the end of its season 3 storyline, but the saga of robot hosts vs. humans apparently won’t stop there. HBO has announced that Westworld has now been renewed for season 4 on the network, THR reports. HBO released a statement about the Westworld renewal, stating, “”From the Western theme park to the technocratic metropolis of the near future, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed every twist and turn from the minds of master storytellers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy,” HBO programming president Casey Bloys said in a statement announcing the pickup. “We can’t wait to see where their inspired vision takes us next.”
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Westworld showrunners Lisa Joy and husband Jonathan Nolan will reportedly remain in place to oversee season 4. No premiere date for the next season has yet been announced, nor has an official episode count.
For comparison, Westworld seasons 1 and 2 had 10 episode counts; season 3 is topping out at 8. There was over a year-long wait between season 1 (Fall 2016 – Spring 2018), and a two-year wait between season 2 and 3. With that kind of pattern, it wouldn’t be surprising if Westworld season 4 didn’t arrive until 2022 at the earliest. On the other hand; if Westworld 4 is presumably the last installment of the TV series, it would be equally unsurprising if HBO tried to get it out on the airwaves sooner, before later. Especially if the season 3 finale is a major cliffhanger, as expected.
Westworld season 3 seems to be scoring much better with a mainstream audience than the overly-convoluted mysteries of season 2, and all its overlapping timelines of events. Westorld III has been all about the straight-up battle for supremacy in the real world, between the “awakened” robot host Dolores (Rachel Evan Wood) who escaped her Westworld theme park prison, and Engerraund Serac (Vincent Cassel) the diabolical trillionaire, who has been revealed as the “big bad” who was trying to infiltrate Westworld and steal its guest data, all along. Serac’s advanced A.I. system Rehoboam is keeping the citizens of the future locked into their various castes within society, until Dolores introduced a sharp hit of digital anarchy that has now shaken up the world order.
As season 3 comes to its finale, Serac has made the move of staging a hostile takeover of Delos Inc., the owner of Westworld. He wants the treasure trove of guest data that exists in Dolores’ head, and has begun destroying the hosts left behind, in order stop Dolores from staging a robot revolution. With Maeve (Thandie Newton) under his thumb, Serac has all the weapons to battle Dolores both physically and digitally, without lifting a finger of his own.
Catch the end of Westworld season 3 on HBO Sunday nights.
