A Look into Westworld’s Season 2 Superbowl Trailer

Just over a year after the season one finale of the HBO drama Westworld, fans have finally been provided with a formal look into the newly anticipated season. The new trailer, which aired during the Super Bowl and is almost two minutes long, features characters such as Thandie Newton’s Maeve Millay, Evan Rachel Wood’s Dolores Abernathy and Jeffrey Wright’s Bernard Lowe. Furthermore, there is a glimpse of Ed Harris’s antagonist Man in Black alongside many new upcoming features of the newly anticipated season.

Though relatively a young series, Westworld has already gained a significant following. The Sci-fi/Western drama has enthralled viewers with its complex plot and twists, beautiful visual storytelling and strong performances. Based on the 1973 film of the same name, the story takes place in the fictional Westworld: a technologically advanced Western-themed amusement park where android ‘hosts’ satisfy any indulgences the park-goers may have. The resort-goers are free to do as they like without fear of retaliation from the hosts, as they are inherently programmed to not kill any living object from the real world. The complexity of the world of Westworld rivals even that of Game Of Thrones, and in terms of numbers, it’s even bigger.

The trailer itself reveals more than viewers had anticipated. It begins as a commercial of the park while Dolores’ voice rings over the beautiful sweeping planes of Westworld, seemingly toting the resort as a ‘world where dreams come true’. The trailer shows the effects of the chaos sown since the season one finale as host bulls rampage through the Delos offices. Like the host bulls, the human hosts appear to rampage across both the park and Delos, seemingly taking power in all areas of the resort as Dolores asserts: ‘We can burn it to the ground. From the ashes, build a new world. Our world’. Cleverly, a piano cover of Kanye West’s ‘Runaway’ is heard throughout the trailer, aptly capturing the new nature of the park hosts.

Furthermore, the new features in the season two trailer include clues to a further expansion to the Westworld park, such as a Samurai, Roman and Medieval world, which were teased in a scene in the finale of the first season. Leaked set pictures indicate that of the three worlds unseen in Westworld, the Samurai world seems to be a new unexplored territory that season two will delve into. It also possibly indicates Dolores’ position at the head of this new rebellion, having shot Anthony Hopkin’s Robert Ford. However much the trailer seems to confirm the return of many new characters, as well as the debut of many new, it reveals little on the structure and time of the new season, and viewers are left to ask if they believe the new season will follow the same non-linear story telling.

Ultimately, the new trailer provides much more than expected, though it still leaves unanswered questions to the chaos of the season before. Who will control the park? The humans, or have the hosts finally come to build their own, new world?