Game of Thrones is over, the final season is in the can, the documentary has come and gone. This means, for fans of HBO's fantasy and science fiction work, it's time to turn their eyes towards the 2019-2020 television season. Throughout the fall of 2019 and spring of 2020, the channel will premiere an adaptation of the Watchman comic, a star-studded version of His Dark Materials done jointly with the BBC, and, of course, the next season of Westworld. These details in the Westworld Season 3 teaser are a sign that when the show finally returns, things will be very different.
However, HBO wants to make something very clear about the new season. Even though the trailer features an entirely new character fans have never met before, is set outside the park in the futuristic city only seen in flashbacks during Season 2, and appears from all angles to be a completely new take on the series, this is not a reboot.
Speaking to Deadline, HBO programming president Casey Bloys said:
At the end of the [second] season, Dolores was going off. So it was a little bit of a tease to see what the world might look like. All I will say is, it still has robots in it, but it’s not so much a reboot as it is following the characters.
So what did fans miss about this trailer that ties it back to the first two seasons?
Westworld Season 2 introduced a new kind of "host" one which does not have human skin or personality, designed to be drones. From the looks of them, this technology is now outside the park as well, though, from the body language of Aaron Paul's friend here, they may have personalities after all.
Back in her old host body from Season 1, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) seems to be up to new tricks she learned from watching Robert Ford and the Man In Black for all those years. But what exactly is her plan? And how do the marbles Tessa Thompson's version of Dolores smuggled out of the park fit in?
The show already announced it cast Lena Waithe and Marshawn Lynch (yes, the guy from the Oakland Raiders.) Both of them turn up in the shot with Aaron Paul as they break into a vault for a robbery job they pick up on what looks to be an Uber App for criminal activity.
Also of note, Kid Cudi, who is credited here under his given name Scott Mescudi, is also in the trailer. (He's the one in the prison uniform, suggesting Paul has been part of a job gone wrong too.)
Season 1 of Westworld was subtitled "The Maze." Season 2 was subtitled "The Door." Season 3 will almost certainly have its own theme come 2020. However, it's very telling that the place Aaron Paul's character finally meets up with Dolores Abernathy, there's a blown-up image of the Maze puzzle from Season 1 etched upon the underpass wall. Could it be the entrance to where the hosts are hiding out?
Westworld Season 3 returns to HBO in 2020.
