WESTWORLD S3
HOW WESTWORLD S3 WILL EXPAND THE SHOW’S HORIZONS…
The sleek, cerebral TV show has its gleaming eyes on new frontiers...
In case Alexa’s chilling cackles didn’t scare you enough, Westworld co-creator Jonathan Nolan has a warning about the “stealth-mode” development of AI. “These intelligences are being created out of the public eye,” he says. “And that may not be a big deal, or it may be the single biggest mistake humanity ever made, right? There isn’t a lot of oversight there...”
For S3 of Nolan and Lisa Joy’s cerebral, suggestive Michael Crichton upgrade, “stealth mode” is more than just a buzz phrase. On the showrunners’ parts, the secrecy levels surrounding series spoilers suggest a near-religious adherence to stealth. But at least that’s in keeping with the setup for the eight-episode third run, aka The New World, where stealth AI developments seem to be a core theme.
When we last visited tech corporation Delos’ Westworld, violent delights did indeed have violent ends. Following the AI uprising of S1’s climax, many of the robotic ‘hosts’ had been forcibly reclaimed by Delos forces. Some other hosts ascended to the Valley Beyond or ‘The Sublime’, a kind of virtual afterlife free from humans.
HOST WORLD
Meanwhile, Evan Rachel Wood’s host-turned-revolutionary Dolores escaped into the ‘real’ world with five mysterious ‘pearls’, each containing the memory module of an unknown host. For a while, Dolores’ consciousness took over a host body modelled on Tessa Thompson’s dead Delos exec Charlotte Hale; now, the
Hale-bot formerly known as ‘Halores’ is out of the park but under control of a new host-mind. Also free is Dolores’ enemy Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), the host modelled on park co-creator Arnold Weber. And one further, well-seeded twist revealed Luke Hemsworth’s security boss Ashley Stubbs to be a host. In short, hosts now move among humans in the ‘real’ world - “If indeed,” cautions Nolan, the tease, “that is where the show is.”
Somehow, two dead characters also return. In new park Warworld, Thandie Newton’s former brothel host Maeve duffs up Nazis; Ed Harris’ Man In Black William is also back, most likely in black. But early footage suggests the most action takes place outside the park. There, Aaron Paul (a selfconfessed “psychotic fan” of Westworld) plays pivotal series newcomer Caleb, a construction worker engaged in criminal work. He’s also accompanied by a Chappie-lookalike robo-buddy.
Teaser trailers have suggested that tech systems Incite (creepy quote: “We know you”) and Solomon (begun in 2039 at an “undisclosed location”) have been beavering away in the background while humanity has endured various
“divergence” moments: eco-disasters, civil wars, political assassinations… In 2058, another “divergence” moment occurs, presumably booting up The New World’s narrative.
MAD WORLD
While online theories argue that Solomon is an Incite initiative launched to take control of humanity’s chaos, Nolan makes it clear that the trailers’ surface sheen is deceptive. “When I grew up, my brother [Christopher] made me watch Blade Runner once a week. That is such a brilliantly designed and produced film. When you think of what the future looks like, you think of that film. We wanted something a bit different… The thing about dystopias is, they can look beautiful. Just because the world is corrupt on the inside, doesn’t mean it can’t be smoothed over and pretty on the outside.”
The trailers drop plenty of hints about that corruption. A looming ‘riotcontrol’ robot points towards brutal
‘THE THING ABOUT DYSTOPIAS IS, THEY CAN LOOK BEAUTIFUL’ JONATHAN NOLAN
policing methods; a utilitarian ’bot being shot suggests further tensions. Does this make the environment ripe for Dolores to rouse trouble? Perhaps, but Westworld rarely does the obvious. “She is a fish out of water this season, she’s truly on her own,” says Wood. “She’s still full of surprises, still pretty ruthless. But I think her actions with Aaron[’s character] make her challenge her views about humanity.”
Similarly, Nolan and Joy want to challenge our views on where humanity is at. And that means bringing the resonances close to home. “One of the fun things about this show is you get to play around with big ideas and present them to the audience as if they’re far in the future,” says Nolan. “But they’re not. They’re right now. And one of the fun things about the third season is we discard the idea of metaphor and deal with the world for what it is – which is a giant shit-show.”
Should that sound grim, Nolan promises a silver lining. Turns out the stealth approach may have one advantage. “Elon Musk talks about the need for transparency in the development of AI. If we’re going to build a god, it might be good if everyone gets a bit of a voice into how that’s being developed.” He smiles. “But it makes for a much better TV show when you don’t do that...” Kevin Harley
WESTWORLD SEASON 3 STARTS ON SKY ATLANTIC AND NOW TV ON 16 MARCH.