Westworld has been canceled by HBO, but star James Marsden hopes season 5 will still happen. HBO’s sci-fi thriller show set in a futuristic Western theme park populated by sentient androids became a sensation when it debuted back in 2016. But fans became increasingly frustrated with the show’s many twists and turns over the course of subsequent seasons, and in 2022 HBO finally decided to pull the plug on the expensive series, leaving the fans who did stick around wondering how Westworld season 5 might have wrapped up the story.
But fans of Westworld were indeed not the only ones left with a bad taste in their mouths after HBO’s abrupt decision to cancel the series. In November, Ashley Stubbs actor Luke Hemsworth spoke out to express his disappointment with the decision to prematurely end the show. Now Hemsworth’s co-star Marsden, who played Teddy Flood for three of the show’s four seasons, has added his own two-cents about the end of Westworld. For his part, Mardsen says he hopes there’s still a way for season 5 to happen in spite of the cancelation. Check out the actor’s remarks in the space below (via Rolling Stone):
I’d be lying to you if I told you that the way we ended Westworld wasn’t a disappointment. I’m never going to speak without gratitude about any of my experiences, but it would have been nice to be able to complete the story we wanted to finish. I love this Westworld family. It was one of those unique opportunities to be part of something where I also would be sitting at home ravenously waiting for the next episode as a fan. I totally understand it’s an expensive show and big shows have to have big audiences to merit the expense, I just wish it was about more than financial success. But who knows, maybe there’s some world where it can get completed somehow. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking, because I know we had plans to finish it the way we wanted to.
What Westworld Season 5 Could Be About
Westworld became known over the course of its four-season run for taking big story swings, and for being willing to hit the narrative reset button any time things became too tangled and confusing. Season 4 was indeed no different from the prior three seasons when it came to bending time and warping reality for the sake of effect. But things did seem headed for some kind of resolution in the season 4 finale, when Dolores decided to use her God-like powers to give humanity one more shot, and set about recreating the Westworld park inside the virtual world known as The Sublime.
Dolores’ plan to recreate Westworld in The Sublime clearly set things up to loop back to where they began in season 1 of the show. In addition to restoring the familiar Westworld season 1 setting, this latest reset would have presumably allowed for the resurrection of all the characters who seemingly died in season 4, including Charlotte Hale, William, Maeve and Bernard. As season 4 also set up, the plot of season 5 likely would have involved Dolores putting humanity to the test one last time, finally deciding whether to let the human race live or die.
Westworld Season 5 Almost Certainly Won’t Happen
Westworld not only offered a big challenge for fans trying to keep up with its confounding narrative twists, it also proved to be an expensive proposition for HBO, with season 4 reportedly costing over $160 million. Given such huge budget numbers, there aren’t many outlets that would be willing or able to pick up Westworld and make season 5 happen. As for a return to HBO, fans should not hold their breaths given the dwindling ratings returns the network received for their ever-increasing Westworld investment. The sad truth for Westworld fans is that, as hopeful as Mardsen and other actors may be for a return, chances are slim to none that season 5 will ever materialize on HBO or anywhere else.
