TV SERIES · 2016–2022 · USA
Westworld
- Created by
- Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy
- Network
- HBO
- Seasons
- 4
- Episodes
- 36
- Studio
- Warner Bros. Television, Jerry Weintraub Productions, Bad Robot
67 archived facts 7 topics 2 sources Last reviewed Oct 2026
A dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.
Summary: TMDB
19 Facts From the Making of Westworld
- #002
The series draws to a lesser extent on Futureworld, the 1976 sequel to the 1973 film.
- #004
Westworld is the second series based on Michael Crichton's original story, following Beyond Westworld.
- #006
Beyond Westworld aired on CBS for three episodes before it was cancelled.
- #007
Jerry Weintraub had pushed for a Westworld remake for years, and following his success with HBO's Behind the Candelabra he convinced the network to greenlight a pilot.
- #009
Jerry Weintraub brought the Westworld project to Jonathan Nolan and co-writer Lisa Joy, who saw potential in the concept for something far more ambitious than the original film.
- #011
On August 31, 2013, HBO ordered a pilot for a potential television series, with Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, J. J. Abrams, Jerry Weintraub and Bryan Burk serving as executive producers.
- #014
Ed Brubaker served on the writing staff of Westworld as supervising producer and co-wrote the fourth episode with Jonathan Nolan.
- #017
HBO renewed Westworld for a 10-episode second season in November 2016, and that season premiered on April 22, 2018.
- #019
Westworld was renewed for a third season on May 1, 2018, with production beginning in April 2019 and the eight-episode season premiering on March 15, 2020.
- #021
HBO announced a fourth-season renewal for Westworld on April 22, 2020.
- #023
In 2016, Entertainment Weekly reported that the writers and producers had mapped out five seasons of Westworld; later reports in The Hollywood Reporter speculated about six seasons while confirming that Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy remained involved after signing a new deal with Amazon Studios.
- #026
After Westworld was canceled, the series was among several titles removed from HBO Max in December 2022 as part of cuts at Warner Bros. Discovery following their merger, so it could be shopped to free ad-supported streaming networks.
- #028
J. J. Abrams proposed that Westworld be told from the perspective of the hosts, an idea Nolan said the writers embraced and pushed further, even inverting the narrative where possible.
- #029
Warner Brothers had been trying to remake Westworld (1973) since the 1990s. In 1996, the film's writer and director Michael Crichton and J. J. Abrams wanted Abrams to write the script, but Abrams could not find a way he thought would work. In 2000, it was announced that Joel Silver would work on the remake. Silver hired Richard D'Ovidio to write the script. In 2002, it was announced that Arnold Schwarzenegger would star in and produce the film, with John Brancato and Michael Ferris writing a new script. Schwarzenegger left the project when he was elected Governor of California. In 2005, Tarsem Singh was announced as director. Quentin Tarantino claimed in 2007 that the film had been offered to him. In 2008, Billy Ray was hired to write a new script. In 2013, Abrams pitched the idea of a series to creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. As Nolan told Deadline: "J. J. came to Lisa and me with the suggestion that Westworld not be made as a film, because it had been copied so many times and inspired so many science fiction films, but as a series from the robots' point of view."
- #030
For Westworld, Jonathan Nolan drew inspiration from video games including BioShock Infinite, Red Dead Redemption and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, where the writer must build a narrative in which the hero's morality exists on a spectrum.
- #032
During research for Westworld, the writers used Sergio Leone's films as reference points for characters and visuals, Philip K. Dick's novels to explore dilemmas about artificial intelligence, and the Grand Theft Auto games for world-building and interlocking narrative.
- #034
The notion in Westworld that data in the hosts' memories persists unless physically removed came from Nolan's engineer uncle, who told him the NSA would triple overwrite hard drives and then drill holes in them to ensure the information was destroyed.
- #038
The way non-player characters exist autonomously in video games shaped how Westworld approached its individual storylines, which reset in a continuous loop.
- #061
The pilot episode of Westworld was filmed over a 22-day period in August 2014 in and around Los Angeles and in Moab, Utah.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia Westworld (TV series) — Wikipedia
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work