HBO has an idea about what it should put in place of Game of Thrones for Sunday nights. It is a new show called Westworld that will premiere next month.
Let’s get into details by saying it has a great cast and production team. Jonathan Nolan (Interstellar) and wife Lisa Joy Nolan (Pushing Daisies) will be producing the show while Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood and James Marsden will star in it. The series is a remake of Michael Crichton’s 1973 classic movie about artificial intelligence going wild at a western theme park. It has been coming for a while, so fans were enthusiastic about it , however, when the produciton stopped early this year it caused some concern. Everything went back to normal but some doubts emerged about the show being what HBO expected it to be or not.
Marsden explained the reasons for why the produciton stopped. Apparently, it was to tighten the storyline for many years to come as the insiders are telling the story was prepared for 5 seasons and even the finale is written. Here is what Marsden said:
“It wasn’t about getting the first 10 [episodes] done, it was about mapping out what the next 5 or 6 years are going to be. We wanted everything in line so that when the very last episode airs and we have our show finale, five or seven years down the line, we knew how it was going to end the first season – that’s the way Jonah and [executive producer J.J. Abrams] operate. They’re making sure all the ducks are in the row. And it’s a testament to Jonah and Lisa and HBO that we got them right, especially the last three scripts. They could have rushed them and get spread too thin. They got them right, and when they were right, we went and shot them.”
This is good news for the people who has been expecting the series for a long time now and it is even greater news in general. When a series is planned in advance for that long time it usually turns out to be great. Fingers crossed for Westworld!
