Westworld Season 2 Already Being Planned

HBO has yet to officially order Westworld season 2, but if you’ve watched the first two episodes already, you probably realized it is the best new drama of the fall and an immense achievement in storytelling ambition for its creators and showrunners, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, as well as its large ensemble cast. It’s also clear that many fans were ready and eager to hear any news about season 2 at the New York Comic Con panel I attended with Nolan, Joy, and several cast members present.

During the proceedings, Nolan even let it slip that they are already making plans for writing down season 2. It occurred with Nolan and Joy, who are married, discussing the challenge of dolling out the proper amount of information and intricate plotting with each episode. For instance, as Joy explained, her husband has a habit of writing in long-form, even for television. So while discussing at one point how a pivotal scene in the second episode had originally been scripted for the pilot, Nolan himself let slip that they are already structuring a second season.

“There were a handful of things that we weren’t able to touch in the first season, and we’re now currently breaking the second season,” Nolan said. “One of the really nice things about TV is, you get to go again.”

Indeed, Nolan later compared the experience of writing for television to what it was like co-writing The Dark Knight Trilogy, and how that evolving collaboration between writer and performer is pivotal for television, yet rare for film.

“First and foremost, and Lisa already touched on this, I tend to have a problem stopping,” Nolan admitted with a smile. “There’s always too much material. But I think one of the great joys of working in television—and it’s true if you’re lucky enough to work in a franchise film environment. I worked on Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, and you got a chance to develop that feedback loop with the actors.

“For the most part, that’s very rare in film. It’s every day in television. That relationship becomes integral. We put material out there and see what comes back, and in this case, everything’s amazing. So you get to write into that a little bit more, which you can’t do in a film. In a film, you set off, and the dynamic that you thought was going to work doesn’t quite work, and you’ve just got to grab your knees and ride it out. Here, you get to play endlessly with it. People give you wonderful material that comes back that you then adapt and change, and tweak from there.”

As for what a second season of Westworld might look like? That is difficult to determine when the first season of 10 episodes is still in its infancy. However, Nolan certainly teased a fan when he asked if a future season could see Romanworld or Medievalworld (two other theme parks in Michael Crichton’s original 1973 Westworld movie). Nolan eventually dismissed that as not happening, but the way he explained himself implicitly left wiggle room for another type of theme park to exist in his show’s universe.

“I’ve been coming here to New York Comic Con for seven years and I haven’t said a single word of substance in all seven,” Nolan laughed to the audience’s amusement when asked about the prospects of Romanworld. “They keep inviting me back, but I never answer a single question, not really… You said, Romanworld and Medievalworld? No.”

While those two parks’ violent delights might be an impossibility right now, you can enjoy the violent ends of Westworld on Sundays at 9pm on HBO. You can also read our review for last night’s second episode, “Chestnut,” right here.