We've talked before about how infuriatingly confusing - and badly told - Westworld was, and at the time, it seemed like we weren't the only ones who had problems with the show.
Now it seems it wasn't just us who was confused by the show; the cast themselves didn't really know what was going either. The cast and showrunners of Westworld were at the annual Paleyfest festival and were on for a panel discussion that covered a number of outstanding fan theories, issues with the first season and what's in store for the next.
The big reveal from it all was that Westworld's second season is currently being written and will not enter production until the scripts are ironed out and ready. What's more, Jonathan Nolan and his wife, Lisa Joy, will be writing each episode - a break from last season's changing roster of writers.
While no specifics were given about the second season, one area that cropped up was fan theories - of which we know there were plenty in the first season. According to Jimmi Simpson, he wasn't told he was playing an older version of Ed Harris' character - and only found out about it when he talked with a random crewmember.
He wasn't the only one confused by the show, either.
During the panel discussion, Evan Rachel Wood admitted that she didn't know Jeffrey Wright's character, Bernard, was a robot. Moreover, she thought she was the Wyatt character - which, in a way, turned out to be sort-of-correct. In the show, Wyatt was merged with Evan Rachel Wood's character, giving her the ability to shoot and kill hosts as and when she felt like it.
The fan theories became so much, in fact, that Jimmi Simpson had to seek advice from showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy with how to deal with them. "...I was engaging with people who were watching the show, but I wasn’t engaging with those questions. So I reached out to Jonah and Lisa and asked, ‘Are people going to start tabulating the algorithms of my tweets not returned about this particular theory and figure out that’s the one I’m avoiding?’ And they said, ‘That’s a good call. We’re going to send everyone a prepared concept of what you should do with theories - truthful or not.' And that is in fact what they did."
According to Simpson, the guidelines "were basically ‘don’t be a liar’ and ‘just get through it,’ plus a couple options, but it was more about appreciating the thought put into [the fan theories] without giving away anything in the response."
That may be all well and good and it's clear a lot of thought, research and effort has been put into Westworld, but will people turn up for the second season? Let us know in the comments.
