Alison Schapker, a writer for Season 4 of Westworld, discloses details about the current season’s take on a new theme park story, explaining how everything will tie together with the previous storyline explored in three seasons.
An HBO sci-fi show dealing with artificial life on a dystopian Earth, Westworld first aired in October 2016—now, three completed seasons in and a fourth currently broadcasting, the show’s characters have evolved as much as the story has made for an intriguing watch.
Premiering on June 26, 2022, Season 4 was released after two years on the heels of the disappointing experience the viewers shared in Season 3. The show stars Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris, Tessa Thompson, Jeffrey Wright, and Aaron Paul. James Mardsen, who was a no-show in Season 3, has also made his return in the new season.
Season 4 of Westworld takes up the events following that of Season 3 with a seven-year gap, and it has introduced a new theme park, a 1920s gangster park, The Golden Age. Only two episodes in, the eight-part American series has already covered a good setup for Season 4.
The previous season had been a dissatisfying experience for most viewers due to the messy storyline, which was, according to a few critics, “incomprehensible” and “maddeningly complicated.”
Season 3 had seen a drastic fall in viewership after the success of Seasons 1 and 2, and creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy had to come up with a whole new world for the characters to grow and for the story to progress more organically without any complex plots.
In an interview with IO9, via Gizmodo, Season 4 writer Alison Schapker spoke up about the show maintaining its style and themes in Season 4 while trying to focus on the development of the characters in a new scenario.
I feel like, in some ways, the show’s metaphors really do apply to the writing process. We are, kind of every season, taking a loop, and that loop is getting bigger, and it almost starts to feel maze-like a little bit in terms of the obstacles to that path. But I think we wanted to tell a bigger story this season.
Schapker also talks about remaining hopeful that “fans will go on a ride” and how Season 4 of the show goes “somewhere new and bold,” promising a better experience to old and new viewers to gain back some of the viewership they lost with the previous season.
This one very much was about now that Hosts have left the park, now that we freed ourselves from this kind of—I want to say, like a more incipient moment of being controlled by algorithms and big data and all that stuff. We think maybe we put the genie back in the bottle, but can you ever? And if you can’t, where will this go? Where could this go? Those are very much questions that have an almost loop-like quality, but hopefully, more like in that spiral-ly sense of you’re getting somewhere new with each season’s go-round.
The creators and writers of the American dystopian drama are going beyond their limits to give back the viewers the show they love, which is commendable – but only time will tell if Season 4 will revive the spark of imagination and blow away the audiences as before.
About Westworld
Westworld is an American science fiction-thriller media franchise that began with the 1973 film Westworld, written and directed by Michael Crichton. It was followed by the sequel film Futureworld (1976).
In 2016 a new television series based on the original film debuted on HBO; the critically acclaimed series has broadcast three seasons, with a fourth currently streaming on HBO Max.
The series follows a dystopian world within the limits of Wild-West-themed amusement parks open to the elite to enjoy and are populated with human-like androids created for their enjoyment. But things take a dangerous turn when the robots malfunction and start killing the park’s patrons.
The TV Series follows the same universe as the films and features a star cast including Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Tessa Thompson, Jeffrey Wright, James Marsden, Simon Quarterman, and Aaron Paul.
Source: GizModo
No Comments on Westworld Writer Explains New Theme Park Story for Season 4