It’s finally happening, or is it? Westworld, the mind-bending science fiction neo-western series that’s continuously made us question our reality, is finally back in full force. The hit HBO series is returning for a Season 4 after a two-year hiatus, and it promises to be a bloodbath between artificial intelligence and humankind as they both fight to take over the world.
Hailing from the minds of Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the two serve as co-creators on the series and are the all-seeing eyes that pull the invisible strings behind the scenes. An adaptation of the 1973 dystopian sci-fi thriller under the same name, Nolan and Joy have managed to create a monster of their own as the series has notoriously become chaotic and at times confusing with its several storylines and alternate universes. At the center of the series is a simple question though, what makes us human?
Season 1 takes place in a never-ending theme park called Westworld, and in it, guests can visit the old wild west and live out their fantasies as heroic cowboys or ruthless villains. They interact with hosts, advanced robots who look, think, and feel like humans, but are programmed to fulfill certain roles within the park with pre-scripted lines and motives. Evan Rachel Wood stars as the host Dolores Abernathy, a rancher’s daughter who begins to question the nature of her reality. This proves to be lethal, and by the end of season 1 she realizes she’s living in a fake simulation and begins waging a war against humankind in hopes of seizing control of the world by causing the end of civilization.
Thandiwe Newton co-stars as Maeve Millay, a cunning host who also discovers she’s trapped within a false reality and dreams of escaping alongside her host daughter. Jeffrey Wright plays Bernard Lowe, head of Westworld’s Head of the Programming Division and a crucial adversary to all of Dolores’s plotting. Ed Harris portrays the villainous Man in Black, a human who’s visited the theme park for years with a secret agenda, and Tessa Thompson plays Charlotte Hale, the Executive Director of the Delos Destinations Board, who gets pulled into all the pandemonium in Westworld once the carnage begins in Season 2. Fast-forward to Season 3, and Dolores has broken out of Westworld and entered the real world, which takes things to a whole new level.
Set in a futuristic, dystopian world, privacy does not exist anymore, technology has essentially taken over the world. As Dolores plots to destroy mankind by getting her hands on crucial information that can overturn the entire system society now runs on, she meets the new character Caleb Nichols played by Aaron Paul, a human who’s been overlooked for too long with dreams of regaining power. The duo team up, and both Bernard and Maeve serve as their main foes as they attempt to stop them before they set fire to humankind. The season left off on a bleak note, as Dolores died getting Caleb the information that kickstarts the end of everything, and it’s important to note that even though Dolores died in the shocking Season 3 finale, Wood is returning to the series as a brand-new character in Season 4.
There’s a lot to process before we continue, and Season 4 of Westworld is sure to have even more intricate, maze-like storylines and loopholes that will mess with our perception of reality. Coming to HBO Max soon, here’s all the information you need to watch Season 4.
When and Where You Can Watch Westworld Season 4
Westworld Season 4 will premiere on HBO Max Sunday, June 26, 2022. Similar to Season 3, this season will also contain eight, hour-long episodes, versus the 10-episode arcs in Seasons 1 and 2. The series will release episodes on HBO Max in a weekly fashion, and the finale will air on Sunday, August 14. To watch the series, viewers need to subscribe to the HBO Max streaming service. It’s also available to watch through Hulu and Roku with an HBO Max subscription.
Westworld Season 4 Episode List
Episode 1: “The Auguries”- June 26, 2022
Episode 2: “Well Enough Alone”- July 3, 2022
Episode 3: “Annees Folles”- July 10, 2022
Episode 4: “Generation Loss”- July 17, 2022
Episode 5: “Zhuangzi”- July 24, 2022
Episode 6: "Fidelity” - July 31, 2022
Episode 7: "Metanoia”- August 7, 2022
Episode 8: “Que Sera, Sera”- August 14, 2022
Is There a Trailer for Westworld Season 4?
Not only is there a trailer for Westworld Season 4, but there are also two of them. The first full-length trailer introduces us to a new, yet familiar world. We begin in the “real world” where all the rioting from the Season 3 finale seems to have settled down, and instead, a perfect society is thriving amongst the New York City skyline. Accompanied by the song “Perfect Day” by Lou Reed, we are re-introduced to Evan Rachel Woods as a brunette, human writer named Christina, officially confirming Dolores is gone for good. Maeve and Caleb continue to be teammates on their quest for greater knowledge, and the Man in Black remains isolated and in turmoil. The trailer also suggests that this new perfect city is perhaps set within an alternate reality, where we’re sure to find more hosts and humans fighting for control.
The second full-length trailer released just two weeks before the Season 4 premiere opens the curtains a little wider on the world we’re about to enter. Bernard is introduced once more trying to save humankind through technological advancement amidst lab rooms with evolving hosts while a drab-looking Caleb is living a less than happy existence amongst a glitching reality. The Man in Black is back in the saddle, and he appears to have entered a new theme park where he once again dons his black cowboy hat and black suit upon a horse. As the Man in Black enters an old world, Christina (Wood) enters a new one in a peaceful city where nothing bad ever happens. Similar to old patterns in previous seasons, she begins to question the nature of her reality throughout the trailer, leaving the question of whether she’s once again become a host in an alternate reality with some invisible power pulling the strings lingering. Knowing Westworld, they won’t let us off the hook easily, and we’ll have to battle through some more cowboys and robots before we know for sure what world we’re living in.
What to Expect in Westworld Season 4
It’s difficult to predict the future in Westworld, as it can change on a dime. What is clear from the two full-length trailers is that as the series enters the new world, it will still implement many of the crucial elements that the characters thrive on. First things first, though the world of cowboys and madams may be gone, there is still going to be an alternate reality within a new city containing hosts and the people behind the scenes controlling it. In other major news, the series will also see the return of James Marsden, who played Delores’s love interest Teddy in the Westworld Theme park, but tragically died in the Season 2 finale. Perhaps the most exciting new cast member to the series is 2022 Academy Award winner Ariana DeBose. She will be playing an important recurring role, and she can be seen interacting with Wood during a quick fleeting moment in the first trailer.
More Shows and Movies Like Westworld That You Can Watch Now
Evan Rachel Wood stars as another woman experiencing an awakening that leads her to take back control of her life in the 2020 film, Kajillionaire. Like Dolores in Westworld (in that someone else calls all the shots), Wood plays Dolio Dyne, the daughter of two, overbearing con-artist parents who cannot let go of their daughter and let her lead her own life. It’s a quirky, independent crime drama co-starring Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger as Wood’s parents, and together the family makes a living by pulling off small-town grifts. As Dolio is used as a pawn in her parents’ various cons, a mysterious new woman played by Gina Rodriguez joins the family’s petty crimes, and she soon has Dolio questioning her own identity, and why she lets her parents boss her around.
If you’ve ever questioned the nature of your reality, you’re not alone. In the Netflix original dramedy series Russian Doll, Natasha Lyonne stars as Nadia Vulvokov, a New Yorker reliving her 36th birthday day after day in a dangerous time loop that leads to various distressing states of existential dread in comedic fashion. It’s a similar set-up to Groundhog Day, and as Nadia dies and comes back to life 100s of times, she begins to wonder where real life begins and what it all means. Co-created by Lyonne, Amy Poehler, and Leslye Headland, Nadia goes down a reality-bending rabbit hole to discover why she’s stuck in an infinite time loop and confronts her traumatic past, so she can finally escape towards the future.
What does it really mean to be human? That’s one of the many themes pondered in Westworld and in the 2014 critically acclaimed science-fiction film, Ex-Machina. Domnhall Gleeson stars as a programmer for an elite tech company who takes a trip to the CEO’s complex for the weekend, and he discovers something amazing yet terrifying. There, he meets a robot named Ava, played by Alicia Vikander, and he’s quickly caught up in an intense scheme as Ava proves she’s much more human than previously realized. Ex-Machina ponders topics of free will amidst incredible special effects that earned the film the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, and also served as Vikander’s break-out role.