In the thrilling final moments of Westworld's first season, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), the oldest host at Westworld, reached consciousness and killed the park's founder, Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), before turning her gun on his guests at the board gala.
It was a jaw-dropping conclusion to a season rife with mind-bending twists and turns, and given the many still-unsolved mysteries surrounding the Westworld universe, it's no surprise the show's creators, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, have been cagey about Season 2 details. Mercifully, the series returns this Sunday, but to hold you over until the premiere, we're exploring everything we know about the new season below.
1) Season 2 will have ten episodes and premiere April 22.
Westworld's second season will debut this Sunday at 9 PM EST.
HBO ordered 10 more episodes of the series back in November of 2016, but the show's scale inhibited it from premiering in 2017. "The production is enormously challenging and ambitious, and so is the writing," Nolan told The Hollywood Reporter. "We said very early on that we wouldn't be able to turn this around every year."
2) Nolan says Season 2 will be "twice as ambitious" as the first.
“We always knew that we wanted the stakes and the scope to increase dramatically and that means the scale of production increases as well," Nolan said in a June 2017 interview with Variety's Remote Controlled podcast. As Wood put it in an interview with Thrillist, "The first season is an amazing prequel and a good setup for the actual show."
3) The first episode, titled “Journey into Night,” runs 70 minutes.
The premiere episode of Season 2 recalls the title of Dr. Ford's final narrative, and Wood described the episode as "chaos" in a tweet back in July. HBO's description of the episode is just as ominous: "The puppet show is over, and we are coming for you and the rest of your kind. Welcome back to Westworld."
4) The secret title of Season 2 is "The Door."
Apparently, season of Westworld has its own name. Season 1's was "The Maze," while Season 2's is "The Door." Let the theorizing begin!
Here's how Nolan described the process of selecting titles during his Reddit AMA:
"It's not an anthology show, but we knew that a: each season was going to take a long ass time to make; and b: we wanted each season to have it's own themes, questions and ideas. All connected together, obviously, and all tracking the same characters."
5) Season 2 is "defined by chaos."
Nolan hinted at the mayhem in an HBO behind-the-scenes segment in Season 1, contrasting it with the "control" of Season 1. The chaos was Ford's objective all along: "Ford has set in motion what he thinks is a plan. The nature of that plan is something we explore in the second season—what his intentions are," Nolan said. "Are they to let Dolores or the other Hosts escape? Are they simply to teach the human guests a lesson?"
We also saw hints of this confusion in the first trailer for Season 2. It opens with blood-spattered piano sheet music before launching into Sammy Davis Jr.'s "I Gotta Be Me" as eerie images flash onscreen: Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) staring at a dead tiger (a nod to another world, perhaps?), dead bodies strewn through the Westworld lab as Maeve (Thandie Newton) and Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman) look on, Dolores and Teddy (James Marsden) shooting down gala guests while on horseback, and Bernard riding on a cart through Westworld with Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth). Finally, the Man in Black (Ed Harris) puts on his hat, his face covered in bloody scratches.
6) Instead of playing with timelines, Season 2 will switch up perspectives.
"I think we'll experiment in different point of views and different angles," Joy revealed in March of 2017. "You don't necessarily want to repeat the same thing," she said in reference to the time-jumping of Season 1.
7) Expect to go beyond Westworld itself, starting with Shogun World.
Remember that brief look at "Samurai World" in the Season 1 finale? It's actually called Shogun World, and it's the second of six parks within the "Delos Destinations" complex. According to Merriam-Webster, shogun refers to "one of a line of military governors ruling Japan until the revolution of 1867–68." Here's how Delos describes Shogun World on the official Delos Destinations website:
For those for whom Westworld is not enough, the true connoisseur of gore can indulge their fantasies with the slash of a katana. Modeled after Japan's Edo period, Shogun World offers a chance for guests to embrace their inner warrior, in a landscape of highest beauty and darkest horror. Let your true self take shape in the land where self-discovery is an art form.
The new park will be closely connected to Westworld: "In the period when the Western was the biggest genre in the world, the interplay between Westerns and samurai films in the domestic market in Japan was really cool," Nolan told EW. "On that meta level, those two genres have this almost incestuous relationship with each other. We just couldn’t resist."
Season 2 Episode 5 will likely contain our first glimpse of Shogun World; this episode's title is "Akane No Mai" and its description literally states, "ショーグン・ワールドへようこそ (Welcome to Shogun World)." Akane is a character played by Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi, and we got a quick peek at her in the most recent Westworld trailer:
Nolan also teased the potential for Roman World and Medieval World back in October, and promised we'd see several "new worlds" during a Reddit AMA in early April. “The first season was a journey inward, this is a journey outward," Nolan told EW in March. "It’s a search for what else is in the park, and what else is beyond the park.” He also hinted at the long game to THR way back in December 2016: "With this show, we never had any intention of staying in one place. We don't want to shoot on the same sets for 10 years. We want to blow the sets up and move on to another piece of the story," he said. "It also follows the story of our hosts. Their lives begin in loops, and then expand and change and grow." Could Season 2 also include a glimpse into the real world?
8) The hosts are in control now—and Dolores is leading the rebellion.
The special Super Bowl trailer for Westworld shows the hosts quickly overtaking the theme park, with Dolores reciting a terrifying speech to the humans she's about to crush: "This world is a lie. This world deserves to die. Because this is your world."
In March, Wood told EW that Dolores is at the "front lines" of the host's rebellion. "She has had it," she told Variety at the show's premiere on April 16." Dolores is on a mission and nothing can stop her. Dolores is leading the revolution, but she is grappling with the loneliness of being probably the most awake of everybody and getting everybody to follow her. She has her mind set on freedom and that is it."
Joy expanded on this idea in an interview with EW: “The hosts are now literally able to define themselves. But the question is: How far are you willing to go until you become a reflection of the evil you’re trying to fight?”
9) We'll begin to discover how the hosts work and what they're made of.
"They’re closer to biological than they are to mechanical, but they don’t suffer brain death the same way we do," Nolan told EW. They’re largely indistinguishable from human beings, but their brains don’t require oxygen—which opens up interesting possibilities."
10) But some of the hosts aren't quite on the same level of consciousness as Dolores.
"The hosts that came out of the woods at the end [of the Season 1 finale] were the hosts that had been stored in cold storage, so we know that those hosts, having been retired, had the drill bit up the nose," Joy told TV Line. "You can expect that they certainly aren’t as immediately present as Dolores is right now."
11) We'll learn more about Dolores' mysterious connection to Wyatt.
Wood told Variety her biggest question at the end of Season 1 was "Who is Wyatt?" given Dolores' history with the character. "I definitely found out, and I got more than I bargained for," Wood said. She expanded on this point in an interview with Entertainment Tonight: "What happens if she has access to all of her selves, all at once? What does that mean? What does that look like?" She continued, "Wyatt is very intense... I thought I was coming back and playing someone with the soul of a man, but then they reminded me that Wyatt can also be a girl's name."
12) Ford is definitely dead, but we might still see the character onscreen.
In that Remote Controlled interview, Nolan referred to Ford's death as a "sacrifice" that is "very real," but promises the character would return through flashbacks. “I think there will be an opportunity to explore a little bit more of the backstory of how this park came to be," he said. "We’ll see the character’s presence will be felt... in terms of filling in a few more of the gaps about the early history of this place.” Episode 2, titled "Reunion," might have something to do with this; HBO's description of the episode merely asks, "Why don’t we start at the beginning?"
Westworld fan site Westworld Watchers also theorizes that Hopkins will return to the series thanks to an interview from Liv Ullmann, his co-star on a future project. She mentioned their film was postponed due to Hopkins' work on Westworld.
13) Maeve will grapple with her newfound knowledge of her existence as she returns to Westworld.
Thandie Newton told Deadline that Maeve was "violently [disturbed]" by Bernard's revelation that she was programmed to leave Westworld, and also confirmed that Maeve will return to the park. We saw this in the Super Bowl trailer, which shows Maeve leading some sort of attack inside Westworld HQ.
Newton told EW she had to "let go" of Maeve a little bit and watch her "grow up" this season, and it was a bit sad.
Wood confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that Maeve and Dolores will meet at some point in the season, but warned, "they have very different objectives."
14) The humans will face deadly consequences, and we'll get a deeper look at what it means to be a visitor at Westworld.
Nolan told TV Line, "[We] will spend a little bit more time next season shining a light on those aspects of the park—what does it feel like to come to it as a guest?—just a little bit before the mayhem starts.” Does this mean Westworld will continue to welcome humans, even after the board gala massacre? Or will this experience be conveyed through flashbacks?
Talulah Riley, who plays host Angela, has been upped from recurring guest to series regular, and her promotion could prove deadly for Westworld's guests. In Season 1, we saw Angela both as a host welcoming guests to the park (she walked Jimmi Simpson's William through the arrival process in Episode 2) and a host within the park, when she collides with James Marsden's host, Teddy. According to Deadline, Angela is "the host whose beatific face welcomed guests to Westworld for decades. She will prove to be one of the last faces many guests will ever see."
15) Teddy plays a "huge role" in Season 2.
During her Reddit AMA, Joy revealed Teddy's plot is one of her favorite parts of the new season, while Marsden told EW Teddy's "awakening" occurs later than Dolores' and Maeve's–it creates an "existential and moral challenge" for the character. Wood teased the future of Dolores' relationship with Teddy in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, revealing the two will deal with it in a new light in the wake of their awakening: "Even though certain things are programming, that doesn't necessarily mean they're not real," she said of the characters' love.
16) Dolores' father will play a larger role, and Charlotte Hale and Lee Sizemore will also return.
Louis Herthum has been promoted to series regular, which means Peter Abernathy will return in a big way. Last time we saw him, Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) and Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman) had uploaded a ton of data into the host, with the intent of sneaking him out of the park to convey information to Delos shareholders. Perhaps he's made it to the real world?
And we haven't seen the last of Hale and Sizemore. Joy told EW that Hale, the executive director of Westworld's board, "is back [for Season 2] and causes trouble," though she is "at the mercy of the hosts like everyone else.”
And as we saw from a scene in last summer's Comic-Con trailer, Maeve has caught up with Sizemore—apparently, she kidnaps him. “These hosts have always been props to his stories, and now it’s like he’s become a player in one of his own stories," Quarterman told EW. In an interview with LA's KTLA 5, he added, "He’s in the most uncomfortable position he could possibly be in at the start of this season." Intriguing!
17) Bernard will take charge.
In an interview with the Daily Beast in December 2016, Jeffrey Wright said that Ford's handshake with Bernard in the Season 1 finale represented a passing of the baton. “There’s this suggestion that Bernard is the captain now," Wright said. It seems Bernard will be an interloper between the human Westworld employees and the hosts. "There's going to be a total awareness of his duality," Wright told Esquire.com. "I'm curious to explore that."
But first, Bernard will deal with some "cognitive challenges" stemming from the moment he shot himself in the head in Season 1 Episode 9, Wright revealed to Deadline.
18) Ed Harris's The Man in Black and Jimmi Simpson's William will return.
The last time we saw The Man in Black, a group of hosts were shooting at him. But Ed Harris told EW that The Man in Black is alive—though perhaps not exactly well—in Season 2. "He gets a bit of damage done to him, that’s for sure,” Harris said. The veteran actor revealed at an Emmys event in April that his character will try to "make amends" this season and that he views The Man in Black as a "protagonist" of sorts.
As for TMIB's younger self, William, played by Jimmi Simpson? Though the actor told Vanity Fair in December 2016 that William's storyline finished with Season 1, Simpson will, in fact, be back for Season 2. According to EW, the new season will "explore the early days of the park and discover how [William] gained so much influence over Delos Incorporated."
19) And we haven't seen the last of Elsie (Shannon Woodward), Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) or Armistice (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal).
Even though Season 1 Episode 8 implied Elsie is dead, hints dropped on the official Westworld site suggest she's alive somewhere in the park. Joy promises EW Elsie and Stubbs are both alive, but that might not necessarily be a good thing: “They’re finally getting to experience Westworld as guests and not in the managerial halls, but I’m not sure they’re enjoying their experience."
As for Armistice, Season 1's post-credits scene implied that she'd be back, and Nolan confirmed it in an interview with TV Line, adding, "The hosts finally have control over their actions and kick a little ass."
20) Prepare to meet the drone hosts.
Yes, that horrifying robot pictured behind Bernard has a name and a sinister back story. According to EW, it's called a drone host, and it represents a shady Delos enterprise. “As we talked about in the pilot, the park is one thing for the guests, and it’s another thing for its shareholders and management—something completely different," Nolan told EW. "There is an agenda here that Delos has undertaken for a very long time. As Bernard is making his way through the wreckage of the fallout from the first season, he’s discovering things about the park that even he doesn’t know and coming upon creatures like the drone host.”
21) 13 new cast members will join the show.
You can read all about the new additions to the cast, including Get Out's breakout star and a Skarsgård brother, right here.
22) We might find out where Westworld is actually located.
"We don’t want to create the world’s largest mystery around it because we have equally interesting, or more interesting, character questions to ask," Nolan said in an EW interview. "You really only know as much as the hosts know... They don’t know where they are yet." In another interview with EW, Nolan said the park comprises 500 square miles and it's probably not in the Western U.S.
23) Nolan said Episode 4, titled "The Riddle of the Sphinx" is his favorite of the season.
HBO offers this cryptic description: "Is this now? If you’re looking forward, you’re looking in the wrong direction." This episode also marks Joy's directorial debut. EW reports William (Jimmi Simpson) appears in this episode, as does James Delos, played by new cast member Peter Mullan. It sounds like we'll be getting more insight into the park's twisted past.
24) Nolan described the finale episode as "epic."
While some of the season's episodes run longer than the traditional hour, Nolan told EW the final episode will "keep going and going—it's a bit of an epic."
Westworld Season 2 premieres Sunday, April 22 at 9 PM EST on HBO.
Julie Kosin is the senior culture editor of ELLE.com, where she oversees all things movies, TV, books, music, and art, from trawling Netflix for a worthy binge to endorsing your next book club pick. She's the former director of audience strategy and entertainment at HarpersBAZAAR.com. When not glued to her laptop, she can be found taking pictures of her dog or haunting used bookstores.
