Westworld Cancelled After 4 Seasons
HBO‘s Westworld has officially closed its park gates after four seasons.
The announcement was made on Friday afternoon — nearly 12 weeks following the airing of Season 4’s finale, which saw Hale (played by Tessa Thompson) best William (Ed Harris) and then crush his pearl into dust, while Christina (Evan Rachel Wood) used the Sublime to return to the titular Westworld for “one last loop around the bend,” where in a bit of narration she shared her hope that “maybe this time, we’ll set ourselves free.”
Maybe! But now, who is to say?
As recently as last month, Jonathan Nolan, who showran the series with producing partner Lisa Joy, said, “We had always conceived of a fifth and final season,” adding, “We’re still in conversations with the network.”
But HBO on Friday issued a statement that said, “Over the past four seasons, Lisa and Jonah have taken viewers on a mind-bending odyssey, raising the bar at every step. We 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. It’s been a thrill to join them on this journey.”
Nolan and Joy’s Kilter Films in turn issued a statement saying, “Making 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. We’ve been privileged to tell these stories about the future of consciousness — both human and beyond — in the brief window of time before our AI overlords forbid us from doing so.”
Based on the 1973 sci-fi film written by Michael Crichton and created for television by Nolan and Joy, Westworld since its October 2016 debut has evolved to deliver a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the question of free will.
The fourth season was greenlit back in April 2020, and after some COVID-related production delays, filming on it wrapped in December 2021. Season 4 then at long last premiered on June 26, 2022, with its finale landing on Aug. 14.
The returning cast for Season 4 included Wood, Harris, Thompson, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Luke Hemsworth, James Marsden, Aaron Paul and Angela Sarafyan, while Aurora Perrineau (Prodigal Son) and Oscar winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) were among the new additions.
Did Westworld Season 4 give you the closure you needed? Or do you lament not getting the planned fifth/final season? What question(s) do you still need answered?
Seriously, why not just do a shortened season 5 to let everything get wrapped up. WBD is really shooting themselves in the foot with the way they are handling things. No creatives are going to want to work with them.
no creatives who care about quality, anyway.
well look at who the new owner is, the guy at Discovery turned great channels into reality schlock and gave the Duggars a platform to spread their poison. WB will be a pale shadow of it’s former self in 3 years.
Please, some other network or media subscriber, pick up the series. One of the smartest, most creative, and most meaningful sci-fi series ever created.
I agree!
I agree as well. HBO is nuts thanks to this Discovery merger.
truly! few shows have left my brain reeling the way Westworld has. a damn shame.
This is a real bummer although I’m not surprised considering all the programming that has been cancelled with all the various mergers and buyouts. Thankfully they did give some closure in the season 4 finale but I really would have liked a season 5 to finish the story. Sigh.
I agree completely. It was obvious they were going for just one more final season so it’s a shame to not get that for them and us loyal viewers, but at the same time, there’s some relieve with how season 4 ended, at least it wasn’t a bunch of huge cliffhangers.
Honestly, while I watched season 4, I spent most of the time really actually thinking that I thought season 3 was actually supposed to be the conclusion. It, you know, kind of concluded a lot of the main story.
All these HBO cancelations really suck.This new person in charge has clearly never watched TV or gives a shit. i truly hate when shows get canceled before their time.
I’m still reeling over the abrupt cancellation of The Time Traveler’s Wife after only 1 season, when it was clear the producers had divided the source material into 3 distinct parts.
wow not even a movie or mini season to tie things up
the era of Zaslav and his bottom line is really upon us
Ehh, honestly I’m fine with it. The series really had its ups and downs and although season 4 was an improvement over season 3, it did feel like enough was enough. I wasn’t really looking forward to the “Good Place” style fifth season. At least we got an ending that can leave to your imagination what would happen with those characters.
I agree. I would have watched a fifth season had they made one, but I won’t pretend like I was looking forward to it. I’m fine with it ending here and with rewatching only season one and “Kiksuya” going forward.
what do you mean? all the best characters died – bernard, maeve, hale…nothing to imagine. dolores was the only “person” left in the world, apparently.
knew they might do this and bought the first 3 series in dvd soon after the sale was finalized. the 4th… maybe i’ll buy. the only good news here is it frees great actors up to do other work. a brilliant series. Once Warrior comes and goes, and Julia, I am cancelling my subscription. No, will finish watching Pennyworth, then cancel, and if and when those two series return, cancelling. Warner Discovery can and their stockholders can choke on their tiny xmas bonuses.
The ending was very close to satisfying. It felt like the finale. I just wanted James Mardsen to be visible in that final scene when Christina stepped back into Westworld. But, close enough. I’m good.
Yes. While I love Westworld, I am almost glad.
are you kidding? wow, it is not satisfying at all that all the Black characters died so a white woman could play god.
I was really hoping for a fifth & final season.
Not surprising. The ratings were dismal, no ardent online fan support and the critics have moved on to shinier objects.
Hardly surprising after season four. It was absolutely terrible. Season one remains a masterpiece that was never bettered (not even close) by subsequent seasons.
Puzzled why people are mourning this. We got 3 whole seasons of the story going in circles pointlessly. Even the phylosophical intrigue that made this captivating once has been gone ever since they started bringing every single character back as a host for no discernible reason. Terminator Genisys is streaming elsewhere, we didn’t need 8 more episodes of robots fighting.
Honestly they should have produced a fifith final season, and make it an HBOMax exclusive. I feel that would have been the best way to do this. More content for your streaming service, no long term commitment, plus some viewers would have followed it to HBOMax for that
Wow I could have sworn I read that it had a fifth season pickup. Oh well.
The way Zaslav has been talking about not just spending money just to spend it, I had a feeling this was coming. I get Westworld didn’t get as big of a return on its high budget as other shows, but i’m sure being that the showrunners had a Season 5 planned to wrap it up, the old HBO would’ve green-lit it even if it’s was shortened season. While Season 4 did sorta serve as a possible conclusion, I really was curious what they were planing for a real conclusion with Season 5.
The first season was fantastic. After that, it started going off the rails and became pointless. Seasons 3 and 4 were not good. It’s hard to be upset about this cancellation.
Nooo ! Maybe TVLine can interview Nolan & Joy about the 5th and final season. Just to know what we are missing.
This is nothing more than a slap in the face to fans of Westworld. Like someone else said this is one of the most intelligent shows out there but alas it’s always the intelligent ones that get the knife the quickest. The last time I was this disgusted was when Prime Video killed Patriot after two seasons.
Too bad they couldn’t have made it understandable, with unexplained or acknowledged time jumps, same with jumps in and out of this dream world or whatever. Good riddance!
I really enjoyed Westworld. I wish HBO would continue with it. Please don’t cancel. Also maybe remake Futureworld like you did with Westworld
Season 4 was essentially Futureworld. 5 probably would’ve expanded on that.
I’m still hoping for a wrap up movie and then Emmy nominations for the program, Wood, and Newton.
that lave show should have been canceled after season 1, which was pretty good but holy disaster the next 3 seasons
I’m not surprised it was cancelled. The viewership was in freefall:
Average viewership in millions
Season 1: 1.8
Season 2: 1.6
Season 3: 0.8
Season 4: 0.3
It was probably an expensive show and any kind of buzz about it had long since faded.
“Shocker” in the banner? Rating plummet, story was between a snooze fest and a disaster, horribly strayed from the premise after season one…after 1 episode this season I stopped and waited to hear about the renewal before I watched any others. Season 1 was a masterpiece. Season 2 had potential with the other park worlds, but got convoluted and messy. As soon as you leave the park it’s not Westworld anymore. The writers pretty much cancelled it after season 1.