You've probably heard the rallying cries by now. A month ahead of its long-anticipated debut, HBO's new Sci-Fi Western series, Westworld, is already being touted as "The Next Game of Thrones". But what show could possibly live up to that hype? And how? Well...maybe, just maybe, this one can -- and from the looks of it, with great aplomb.

Executive Producers J.J. Abrams, Jonathan Nolan, and Lisa Joy are looking to shoot the moon with Westworld and they've spent a whole lot of time adapting the 1973 film of the same name, written and directed by Michael Crichton, which follows the inhabitants of a high-tech theme park where "every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged," as the synopsis reads.

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Image via HBO

Image via HBO

Set at a peculiar cultural intersection where old-world Americana meets futuristic tech, Westworld follows the happenings of a high-tech theme park inhabited by artificial intelligence-enhanced robots designed to indulge every fantasy of the human patrons. Adventure, sex, violence...you name it...the robot "Hosts", as they're called, were created to satisfy each and every whim of their "Guests", no matter how vile or repugnant. The problem comes when those robots begin manifesting consciousness and a sense of self, retaining and recovering their memories, and ending up on a violent path of confrontation with the Guests.

The new incarnation of Westworld inverts the original's format, investing in the robots' point of view over the humans'-- foremost, the tremendous Evan Rachel Wood's Delores, who despite her youthful visage, is the oldest Host in the park. By making the synthetic Hosts the center of the narrative (at least initially), Westworld opens up a whole new realm of the morality play, specifically honed in on the complicated morality of technological invention.

It's what folks like to call "elevated genre" -- the kind of high-concept, universally appealing, and wildly ambitious entertainment that has made Game of Thrones an international sensation. But, while Westworld may ostensibly serve to fill a programming spot that Thrones will soon leave vacant, it also promises an inventive and rampantly creative landscape all its own, and I've broken down a few reasons why.

It Took 20 Years to Crack the Concept

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Image via MGM

While at the Television Critics Association press tour last month, Nolan told reporters that Abrams first met with Michael Crichton about twenty years ago, when Abrams was first interested in adapting the original film. Along the way, there have been a few incarnations of the reboot, including a film adaptation that was set to star Arnold Schwarzenegger, but none of them came to fruition until Abrams realized that the best way to update the story was by inverting it.

"Fast-forward two decades later -- it occurs to J.J. that it's not a movie, it's a series," Nolan said, "and a key aspect of that is this idea that you take the narrative and you invert it, and you make it about the hosts."

Once Abrams cracked the update, focusing on the experience of the A.I. over that of the human Guests, Nolan and Joy entered to pen the script and craft the world, spending the last six years transforming Chrichton's inventive B-Movie into fertile ground that could not only support the concept's ambitious scope, but serve as a landscape to explore the complicated territory of contemporary technology ethics. And they're all deeply relevant to the real world -- questions we seem bound to confront in in the near future thanks to unrelenting technological advancement.

Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and Elon Musk -- some of the most brilliant minds of our time -- have all warned about the complications and ramifications of A.I. technology. "It's not really science fiction anymore," Joy explained, "It's science fact." A reality that offers the creators an opportunity to explore pressing issues through the lens of high-concept fiction.

On that note...

This Material is Thematically DENSE

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Image via HBO

Westworld seems determined to take a no-holds-barred approach to morality in the face of rapid technological advancement. It's not about humans, it's about humanity. What makes it? Who has it? Does our biology make us human? Or is it something more elusive? And can that essence, whatever it is, be translated into electrical impulse? Can A.I. be human? And what does "human" even mean in a world where technology and reality can blend so easily?

You see what I mean, it's pretty deep stuff. The series is essentially a meditation on consciousness, and all the pros and pratfalls that come with an aware state of mind, both human and artificial.

"It's questioning where does life begin," Nolan said,"and what characterizes the importance of life, whether it is a human who is dictated by biological impulses, and neuron synapsing, and the double helixes of DNA entwined within our bodies, or whether it's an artificial being that's coded with zeros and ones."

What makes a person good or bad? And can that which we create achieve a conscience all its own? Can it decide upon its own sense of right and wrong? These are the questions at the heart of Westworld's compelling narrative set-up.

On top of that, Westworld asks some pretty uncomfortable questions of its viewers -- well, at least if you ascribe to conventional morality. "Who are we when we don't think anybody's keeping score?" Nolan asked, and that's really the crux of the human characters in a narrative where we're set to identify first and foremost with the robots. Who would you become in an environment like Westworld? How far would you go? And could you stomach watching a "person" brutally suffer, maybe even die, at your hand with every emotion rendered in explicit detail? If you knew they were naught but circuit boards and wires inside, what would you be capable of? And would that internal circuitry immediately deem them somehow less than the biological circuitry that dictates human life?

The Cast Is a Ridiculous Excess of Riches

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Image via HBO

Nolan and Joy have turned to some of the best actors in the industry to translate those pressing questions to the dramatic action on screen.

Westworld's cast is the proverbial goldmine. It's easy now to take for granted that Game of Thrones began with a cast largely comprised of unknowns and tremendous, if undervalued, character actors like Conleth Hill and Michelle Fairley. Along the way, Game of Thrones has made stars of countless actors, young and old, who helped turn literary characters into television icons, but Westworld is starting in a very different place.

Namely, you probably know most of the actors who star in the series. You certainly know the legendary Sir Anthony Hopkins and the un-knighted, but equally excellent, Ed Harris. But there's also the inimitable and consistently superior (if somewhat under-appreciated) Jeffrey Wright, the devastatingly handsome James Marsden, who has consistently made the best out of a career littered with thankless roles, and the gorgeous, talented Thandie Newton, who never quite settled into the role of "leading hot chick" that her breakout turn in Mission: Impossible 2 tried to assign her.

If there are "unknown" actors poised to break out, it's likely Shannon Woodward, who has long demonstrated her skill through a series of TV roles, or Jimmi Simpson, who arrives in the second episode as the audience POV, and who -- until now -- has largely been relegated to the roles of side-characters (mostly assholes and villains, for some reason, despite his obvious charm), without the opportunity to shine as a heroic leading man. If the outstanding two trailers we've seen so far are to be believed, Westworld seeks to rectify that -- not just on the Jimmi Simpson front, (which I admit I'm particularly invested in as a long time fan), but every single actor who has somehow missed their dues along their impressive careers.

Westworld promises an opportunity for each of its actors to shine (in a vast ensemble, the depths of which I have barely scratched the surface), and it boasts one of those casts you couldn't beg or borrow for. And many of their roles, especially those playing the robots, have demanded what Wood describes as "Acting Olympics" thanks to the way they have to deftly maneuver between human and robotic expression, tripping between moments of emotional frenzy and rebooted, robotic calm.

"I think we settled on this place of subtlety," Wood said. "Those were the things that made the differences between the Hosts and the humans very unsettling." She continued, "You can't really tell them apart until there's just one slight little movement, or shift, or freeze, that just throws you off completely, and those are the moments in the show that made me slightly scared, but really fun to do."

Nolan Knows How to Do High-Tech Sci-Fi

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Image via HBO

As any Person of Interest fan can tell you, Nolan knows his shit when it comes to A.I.. As a screenwriter, he hinted at his techno-bent inclinations with The Dark Knight Rises, but it's on the five-season CBS series where he truly demonstrated his knack for digging deep into the ramifications of technological advancement (certainly, far deeper than you'd expect from a procedural network series) and the extensive world-building that can be born out of such concepts.

With Westworld, Nolan flips that previous experience on its head, transitioning from a story about functional A.I. to a story about cognizant A.I. Following the TCA panel, Nolan explained to a small group of journalists, "Person of Interest was relentlessly non-anthropomorphic A.I.; it was really the godhead. It was A.I. as a pure intelligence, not tethered to the mortal coil. And an A.I. that was developed in secret. With Westworld, you have the opposite."

Indeed, the humanity of the A.I. characters that make up the crux of Westworld is one of its most compelling features. We know who they were created by Hopkins' Dr. Robert Ford, but not why or how. We know that they're set for an evolution, but we know very little of how that change will affect them.

Outside of the A.I. characters, Westworld is also working on a tremendous scope of futuristic technology. We've seen teases in the trailers of the Westworld park's enormous capacity, and indeed it seems the intricate experience offered therein is meant to reflect the entertainment we seek in games.

Nolan explained, "In the 40 years since [the original film], [the gaming] industry has kind of grown up and evolved into this monster that's bigger than the film business, bigger than the TV business." He continued,"So we call them guests, but there is also a gaming aspect of what they do in the park. It is not just a leisurely resort. They're here to engage in the narratives, and the narratives are increasingly sophisticated."

The World Building Opportunities Are Endless

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Image via HBO

There is almost literally no limit to the types of stories that can be told in Westworld's fantastical universe. Where is the Westworld park and where do its patrons come from? Nolan and Joy wanted that matter to be intentionally ambiguous.

"We wanted to start with and ground most of the information that the audience has in the hosts' perspective," Nolan explained. "So when it comes to these questions, we tease a little bit along the way, but we really wanted to strand the viewers in that limited understanding of where this place is."

That leaves an insane amount of options on the table. We know, at least from the trailers and previous actor comments, that a world exists outside of Westworld, but what that world may be leaves a fascinating amount to the imagination. What is Earth's futuristic society like outside the confines of the expansive park? Or is Westworld even on Earth? Where exactly are these human characters coming from before they open the door to indulge their wildest fantasies? That line of questioning also leads to a fabulously exciting possibility down the road...how widespread is A.I. technology outside of the park, and how intense will a cultural revolution be if it spreads beyond Westworld's walls?

At the same time, even if the creators were intent on staying within the walls of the park, there are still limitless opportunities ahead to reinvent the genre scope of the show. Crichton's original film was followed by a sequel, Futureworld, that revealed a host of options for park guests including Medievalworld, Romanworld, and the titular Futureworld. The follow-up had a poor critical reception, but it's a fine example of just how far and wide this concept can span if the creators want it to.

What do you guys think? Can Westworld possibly fill the giant shoes of Game of Thrones? Or are you excited for the series to stand on its own? Theories, thoughts, and hare-brained concepts -- sound off with them all in the comments.

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