In a development thatโs bound to provoke surprise across the board, HBO has cancelled Westworld.
The dystopian sci-fi drama created by husband-and-wife duo Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nola which earned nine Primetime Emmy Awards from 54 nominations has been scrapped just months after its season 4 finale aired. The reason? High production cost and lacklustre ratings.
Season 1 of the narratively ambitious series based on Michael Crichtonโs 1973 film set the network back over US$88 million, while season 2 and season 3 breached the US$107 million and US$100 million threshold respectively (and keep in mind this is all before marketing costs). It also doesnโt help when recent episodes have been deemed โconfusing and tangled in its own mythologyโ by audiences.
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โLooming over all of this is the fact Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has pledged aggressive cost-cutting, though network insiders maintain that saving money was not a factor in the showโs cancellation,โ explains James Hibberd of The Hollywood Reporter.
โItโs an unexpected fate for a series that was once considered one of HBOโs biggest tentpoles.โ
โOver the past four seasons, Lisa and [Jonathan] have taken viewers on a mind-bending odyssey, raising the bar at every step,โ HBO expressed via official statement.
โWe are tremendously grateful to them, along with their immensely talented cast, producers and crew, and all of our partners at Kilter Films, Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television. Itโs been a thrill to join them on this journey.โ
Kilter Filmsโ added: โMaking Westworld has been one of the highlights of our careers. We are deeply grateful to our extraordinary cast and crew for creating these indelible characters and brilliant worlds.โ
โWeโve been privileged to tell these stories about the future of consciousness โ both human and beyond โ in the brief window of time before our AI overlords forbid us from doing so.โ
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While Westworld season 4 didnโt end on a cliffhanger โ at least not in the truest sense of the word โ the seriesโ final moments may still be interpreted as open-ended. Perhaps HBO will greenlight a little something something to cap it all off definitively a la Joss Whedonโs Firefly starring Nathan Fillion and its feature-length substitute for an additional season, Serenity.
โWe always planned for a fifth and final season. We very much hope to make them,โ Lisa Joy told The Wrap during a recent interview.
โ[Jonathan Nolan] and I have always had an ending in mind that we hope to reach. We have not quite reached it yet. Just to close up a lot of the stuff that weโve seen before like the flashforward with the Man in Black and everything.
โSo we have a plan for season five but you know, life can make other plans for youโฆ weโll just hope for the best.โ
At least we still have House of the Dragon and Industry.
