Three months after it was renewed for season five, HBO abruptly changed course and suddenly canceled “Westworld” last year, the dystopian science-fiction series by creator Jonathan Nolan (co-writer on ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy) and his wife and creative partner Lisa Joy. “Westworld” wasn’t cheap to make; the ten-episode first season was reportedly produced on a budget of approximately $100 million, with per-episode budgets somewhere between $8 million to $10 million, and the pilot episode alone costing $25 million to produce.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’: Jonathan Nolan Recalls Butting Heads With HBO & Their “Handwringing”: We Were At “Loggerheads” at The Playlist.

Despite HBO canceling the series and scrubbing it from its library, Jonathan Nolan still wants to finish the “Westworld” story. But does anybody else, even the show’s old fans, feel the same way?

EW reports (via THR) that Nolan plans to make the ex-flagship series’ fifth and final season, even if HBO has moved on. “Yes. 100 Percent,” he told THR when asked about if he still wants to make the show’s original ending.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’: Jonathan Nolan “100 Percent” Wants To Make The Show’s Fifth & Final Season: “We’re Completionists” at The Playlist.

After four seasons, HBO’s ambitious series “Westworld” from showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan is officially ending. “Westworld” was mainly about sentient robots, aka hosts, created for a lavish theme park for the extremely rich where “anything goes.” Eventually, after killing a heap of humans, they make their way outside the park into a dystopian future society.

“Westworld” was actually renewed for a fifth and final season in August, but clearly, under the new leadership of David Zaslav at Warner Bros.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’: HBO Cancels Their Ambitious Sci-Fi Series After 4 Seasons at The Playlist.

The third season of HBO’s “Westworld” was a dour death march as the show’s over-reliance on convoluted twists and turns led it to a place in which it barely resembled the clever sci-fi thriller it was in the first two seasons. Breaking the characters of this world out of the park that gave it a name allowed creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy a chance to tell any number of stories, and they arguably lost their way in this vision of the future, diving so deep into its philosophies and technology that they forgot to entertain.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’ Review: Season 4 Tries to Find Its Way Home In Inconsistent But Improved New Chapter at The Playlist.

“Westworld” is a dark odyssey about the fate of sentient life on earth, and it’s coming back for a fourth season. Despite a significant rating drop in season two — it was a ratings behemoth in season one, but the radical changes in season two lost a lot of viewers— the Emmy-winning drama series is still obviously doing well enough by HBO standards (Emmy acclaim surely doesn’t hurt). “Westworld” returns for its eight-episode fourth season Sunday, June 26 at 9:00 p.m.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’ Season 4 Trailer: It’s Time To Question Your Reality Again On June 26 at The Playlist.

What’s going on in the world of HBO’s Emmy-winning sprawling and cerebral sci-fi dystopian TV drama “Westworld”? Well, in many ways, “Westworld” jumped the shark really fast. Created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, based on the 1973 film of the same name, “Westworld” did incredible ratings in season, caught the pop-cultural world by storm and was all poised to become the next “Game Of Thrones,” until “Westworld” decided to get a little too clever with itself and blow itself entirely up at the end of season one.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’ Season 4 Teaser Trailer: It’s A Perfect Day For A Return On June 26 at The Playlist.

Lisa Joy hardly needs an introduction. Having entered television as a writer on Bryan Fuller’s beloved series “Pushing Daisies,” Joy went on to write a whopping 19 episodes of “Burn Notice” before, in 2016, co-creating HBO’s “Westworld” with her husband, Jonathan Nolan. Having now guided the dystopian sci-fi series through three critically acclaimed seasons, Joy found herself in the director’s chair for the first time, directing the season two episode “The Riddle of the Sphinx.” “I learned a lot about my directorial style,” said Joy about her work on the episode, “which is, before I even start prep, I normally have the whole [episode/movie] cut together in my head.

Continue reading Lisa Joy Talks ‘Reminiscence,’ The Future Of ‘Westworld,’ ‘Blade Runner’ & More [The Fourth Wall Podcast] at The Playlist.

Though the third season seems to be watched by fewer people than previous seasons, HBO is committed to “Westworld.” So much so, the network has already given the sci-fi series early renewal for a fourth outing, while Season 3 is still airing.

READ MORE: ‘Westworld’ Season 3 Premiere Saw A Massive Viewership Decline From Season 2

HBO has announced that Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are returning to tell another season’s worth of stories for “Westworld” in the future.

Continue reading HBO Gives Early Renewal For ‘Westworld’ Season 4 at The Playlist.

Often, you find journalists trying to break through the rehearsed answers given by actors and filmmakers during press tours for their projects. Otherwise, you’re left with an interview that is boring and similar to the other 100 interviews with the person that are floating around. However, when an actor speaks plainly, it’s almost shocking and unexpected. And that’s exactly what happened when Ed Harris was recently interviewed by Vulture about his work on the new season of “Westworld.”

**Spoilers for ‘Westworld’ Season 3, though nothing too in-depth.**

With the latest episode of “Westworld” in the books, fans have finally seen Ed Harris’ character turn from the Man in Black to the Man in White, marking a new era for the character and more challenges for the actor who portrays him.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’: Ed Harris Definitely Isn’t A Fan Of His Character’s Story In Season 3 at The Playlist.

If you’re one of the viewers that have stuck around to watch Season 3 of “Westworld” (a not-so-large number, apparently), then you were probably surprised to see a special addition to the cast of the sci-fi series in last night’s episode. A character appeared that has his roots in another HBO megaseries, and his appearance in the newest “Westworld” episode has fans curious about what’s to come.

READ MORE: ‘Westworld’ Season 3 Premiere Saw A Massive Viewership Decline From Season 2

**Spoiler for episode 2 of “Westworld” Season 3**

Last night, a dragon appeared in “Westworld.” But not just any dragon.

Continue reading George R.R. Martin Wanted A Much Bigger ‘Thrones’ Presence In Last Night’s ‘Westworld’ at The Playlist.

Coming into the Season 3 premiere of “Westworld,” a large part of the publicity and marketing campaign was to emphasize how the series is venturing into new territory, both figuratively and literally. This was clearly in response to the overall feeling from many fans that Season 2 took a great series (Season 1 was a massive hit for HBO and was a watercooler show in the same way that “Game of Thrones” was for the network) and turned it into a confusing mess.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’ Season 3 Premiere Saw A Massive Viewership Decline From Season 2 at The Playlist.

“Westworld” has a woman problem. Not the show, the place: the HBO hit’s eponymous, fictional theme park where the wealthy can cavort with lifelike cyborgs (“hosts”) in an idyllic Western town. In Westworld, female hosts are decorative and disposable, their synthetic vaginas granting all other characters permission to buy or rape or kill or otherwise terrorize them. The stories they’ve been assigned by the park’s staff outright encourage it – take Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood), the nubile farm girl and favored sexual conquest, or Maeve Millay (Thandie Newton), the smart-mouthed madame.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’ Season 3: Fembots Have Feelings Too [Review] at The Playlist.

It’s been almost two years since fans of “Westworld” have seen a new episode of the incredibly popular HBO series. And let’s just say Season 2 didn’t really leave such a great taste in many of their mouths, as the series was criticized heavily for the writing and storyline of the most recent batch of episodes. But if you’re hoping that Season 3 is going to be different, you’re in luck, according to one of the show’s stars, Tessa Thompson.

Continue reading Tessa Thompson Says ‘Westworld’ Season 3 Feels Like “The Show Is Starting All Over Again” at The Playlist.

March is an odd month for television. It’s not uncommon, at this point, for any month of the year to be filled with bits and pieces of the television spectrum that don’t align with the traditional network scheduling. However, to see a show such as the Alex Garland created “Devs” up against something like “Better Things” or the return of mega-hit “Westworld” with comeback kid “One Day at a Time” truly demonstrates the wide expanse of storytelling currently at our fingertips.

Continue reading 10 TV Shows To Watch In March: ‘Devs,’ ‘Westworld’ & More at The Playlist.

The ending of “Game of Thrones” left a massive hole in HBO’s programming. Over its run, it became the most popular show for the network giant, but also within television in general. It turned into a cultural phenomenon, and HBO is looking for a show to fill the ‘Thrones’ void.

A few shows have the bandwidth to insert themselves into this space. “Watchmen” and “His Dark Materials” put together interesting first seasons, with the former garnering critical and cultural praise.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’ Season 3 Trailer: HBO’s Biggest Remaining Series Finally Returns Next Month at The Playlist.

As documented in our Best TV of The 2010 Decade feature, which you should read, the 2010s were the age of PeakTV, Prestige TV and the dawn of the streaming age. Now in this new decade of the 2020s, we enter the Streaming War era. Yes, Netflix is here and here to stay, HBO isn’t going anywhere and Showtime, FX and all the other major players are solidified in status.

Continue reading The 60 Most Anticipated TV Shows Of 2020 at The Playlist.

HBO has had one hell of a 2019. Series like “True Detective,” “Big Little Lies,” “Euphoria,” “Succession,” “His Dark Materials,” “Veep,” “Barry,” and “Chernobyl” were all some of the best series on TV this year. And then as a bit of a mic drop, the network ended the year with “Watchmen,” which is not only the best superhero show ever produced but is easily one of the single best seasons of TV to come out in recent memory.

Continue reading HBO Teases New Looks At ‘Westworld,’ ‘The Undoing,’ ‘Perry Mason,’ & More In 2020 Preview at The Playlist.

While we keep waiting to see what happens to the robots that escaped from the park in “Westworld,” HBO released a new teaser on Friday that contains hints for the upcoming season 3. This being a show full of twists and turns, the teaser doesn’t show any of the characters or settings we are familiar with. Instead, the teaser introduces us to a Silicon Valley-style company called Incite Inc.

Continue reading New ‘Westworld’ Teaser Expands The Show’s Universe Via New Tech Corporation at The Playlist.

HBO’s “Westworld” took the stage at the recent San Diego Comic-Con to present the first real look at Season 3 of Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan’s high concept, mind-bending, sci-fi phenomenon. The trailer, which seemingly introduced us to the world outside of the park also clued us in on a WWII setting and the return of Ed Harris’s Man in Black. 

Continue reading Jonathan Nolan Explains How ‘Blade Runner’ Influenced ‘Westworld’ Season 3 at The Playlist.

Confused by the second season of “Westworld“? You’re not alone. Ratings dropped off precipitously in the sophomore season, but the showrunners heard you loud and clear. “This is season is a little less of a guessing game and more of an experience with the hosts finally getting to meet their makers,” co-showrunner Jonathan Nolan told EW this week.

READ MORE: The Best TV Shows Of 2019… So Far

So, with that and mind, welcome back to Westworld.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’ Season 3 Trailer: The Mind-Altering Show Plays Outside The Park [Comic-Con] at The Playlist.

“Game Of Thrones” is over and long live “Game Of Thrones,” unless of course, you’re not a fan of the D. B. Weiss and David Benioff writing that has torn the internet into a war this final season, in which case, never mind. But the point is, HBO is saying goodbye to its flagship show that has brought them millions and millions of viewers and now they’re looking for an heir apparent.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’ Season 3 Trailer: HBO Teases A Radically Different 2020 Season at The Playlist.

The Costume Designers Guild handed out their 2019 awards on Tuesday night and they recognized two of the major frontrunners for the Costume Design Oscar.  Excellence in Period Film went to Sandy Powell and “The Favourite” and Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy went to Ruth E. Carter for “Black Panther.”  Mary E. Vogt took the Contemporary Film honor for “Crazy Rich Asians,” but the film didn’t earn an Academy Award nomination.

Continue reading ‘Black Panther,’ ‘The Favourite,’ ‘Westworld’ Take 2019 Costume Designers Guild Awards at The Playlist.

The Make-Up and Hairstyling Guild handed out their 2019 Awards on Saturday night and two of the three Academy Award nominees, “Vice” and “Mary Queen of Scots,” both had good nights.  “Vice” took home Best Period and/or  Character Makeup and Best Special Effects Makeup in a Film.  “Mary Queen of Scots” took the Best Period and/or Character Hairstyling while “Crazy Rich Asians” won the honor for Contemporary Hairstyling.

The other Oscar nominee, “Border,” did not make the guild cut likely because it was a foreign language film.

Continue reading ‘Vice,’ ‘Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Look Pretty At Make-Up and Hairstyling Guild Awards at The Playlist.

Hulu announced today that the third season of their critically acclaimed drama series “The Handmaid’s Tale” will debut on June 5.  That’s certainly a longer wait than fans were hoping for (season 2 debuted on April 25, 2018) and it also means the 2017 Emmy winner for Drama Series and a nominee last year won’t qualify this time around.  That has to be somewhat disconcerting for the Television Academy considering there’s now a growing list of Emmy favorites that won’t debut in time.

Continue reading ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Joins Growing List Of Drama Series Missing 2019 Emmys at The Playlist.

The Costume Designer Guild became the second to last guild to announce their year-end awards on Thursday (the VFX society is the straggler) and peppered in some unexpectedly fun players amongst the expected nominees.  Awards season contenders such as “A Star is Born,” “Black Panther,” “The Favourite” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” were joined by “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Ocean’s 8,” “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Avengers: Infinity War.”  Surprise omissions included “A Simple Favor,” “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” “Roma” and “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” 

READ MORE: “Aquaman,” “Vice” lead 2019 Make-Up and Hair Guild Awards nominees

On the television side designers from “Sharp Objects,” “The Marvelous Mrs.

Continue reading ‘Black Panther,’ ‘Drag Race’ Among 2019 Costume Designer Guild Awards Nominees at The Playlist.