Westworld season 2: Everything we know right now

Brace yourselves, brave viewers of the HBO action drama, because Westworld season 2 is going to make the first installment look like “a genteel kitchen drama,” according to co-creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. If you can even imagine what that would look like.

Suffice it to say that the next season is going to go off with a bang, except then the shocking storyline won’t let up. The trailer for Westworld season 2 clearly confirm that the co-creators weren’t joking or exaggerating in their teaser-style description, but we’ll get to that later.

So what can you expect from Westworld season 2? Here’s everything we know right now, but keep checking back as Metro US will update the article as new details emerge. Hang onto your hats, folks.

Westworld season 2 cast

If you’re worried about a lack of screen time for some of your favorite characters in the Westworld season 2 promotions, you can quit biting your nails. They’re coming back. Expect to see Luke Hemsworth as Ashley Stubbs, Louis Herthum as Peter Abernathy, Jimmi Simpson as William (the young version of the Man in Black), Teesa Thompson as Charlotte Hale and Shannon Woodward as Elsie.

Some changes

And good news for avid viewers who like Herthum as Peter and Talulah Riley, who first greeted William to the park when he was young, because these cast members have gotten an upgrade to become official series regulars.

As you probably already know, Anthony Hopkins is done with the hit HBO series, but his character will keep popping up. That’s because Dr. Robert Ford will be part of the Westworld season 2 plot, but as a young man.

New faces

Get ready, guys, the show’s getting a Skarsgård. Gustaf Skarsgård — brother of silver screen standouts Alexander, Sam, Bill and Valter — will reportedly play Karl Strand, described as “a white-collar guy comfortable in the field.” Another new character, Antoine Costa, “a tech expert with an objective perspective,” will be brought to life by Fares Fares. The additions are rounded out by Betty Gabriel play Maling, a character described as “trying to restore order on the ground.”

Westworld season 2 plot

Looks like AMC and HBO are on the same page, because just like in The Walking Dead, you can expect all out war in Westworld season 2. Watch the two trailers further down the page to get a sneak peek at what’s to come, but to sum it up quickly: battles. Lots of them.

Hosts and humans are at war, and there’s no mistaking that it’s a fight to death. (Oh yeah, and you’ll hear a very clear “It’s us or them” declared in the middle of one of them, in case you we hoping maybe the two camps could come to some sort of understanding.)

More worlds

Were you tired of the West? Well, it’s your lucky day, because Westworld season 2 is going beyond the frontier with six separate worlds. Fans uncovered a clue hidden in one of the trailers that, long story short, sent them over to a secret website for Delos Destinations, a fake promotional website for the company behind Westworld. Although the website, like the trailers for the second season, is vague, fans of the show were thrilled to discover a slideshow featuring six different worlds that are either active or in development.

One of those world appears to be “S World,” short for Shogun world, that is “modeled after Japan’s Edo period” and “offers a chance for guests to embrace their inner warrior, in a landscape of highest beauty and darkest horror.” Perhaps you could get an idea of what’s to come in this new world by reading the novel by the same title by famous author James Clavell.

Parks three through six don’t have images and “reservations are closed to the public,” so there’s no telling whether they’ll be introduced in the upcoming season or further down the line for the HBO series. But fans apparently have some ideas about the themes of those worlds. They “speculate that Medieval World and Roman World from the original 1973 film might also make an appearance,” Esquire reports.

More corporate intrigue

We got a preview of the “drone hosts” in the first trailer for Westworld season 2, but they’re more than just creepy explain the show’s co-creators. The way they connected the dots for Entertainment Weekly made it clear that they usher in a new perspective for audiences and bring Delos as a corporation with their own interests into the forefront.

Nolan explained:

The drone hosts relate to the corporation’s secret project which is hidden in plain sight in this park. As we talked about in the pilot, the park is one thing for the guests, and it’s another thing for its shareholders and management—something completely different. We’ve used the Google analogy—for consumers, it’s for search and email, yet for the company, it’s for advertising. There is an agenda here that Delos has undertaken for a very long time. As Bernard is making his way through the wreckage of the fallout from the first season, he’s discovering things about the park that even he doesn’t know and coming upon creatures like the drone host.

Though the second season is clearly going to be complicated, you’re going to get answers. “We don’t like to endlessly build mystery; we like to settle our debts by the end of the season,” Nolan reassured fans. “We want to feel like the show is rocketing ahead. The first season was a journey inward; this is a journey outward. It’s a search for what else is in the park, and what else is beyond the park.”

But that doesn’t mean he’s not going to potentially mess with fans. “We love to fuck with Reddit as much as possible,” Nolan joked at a Westworld SXSW panel about the show’s relationship with the social platform where fans theories have run rampant. He admitted to having “a somewhat controversial plan” to deal with the theories and how they’re addressed (or not) through Westworld season 2.

Westworld season 2 trailer

The first Westworld season 2 trailer dropped during ComicCon (of course), and the promos released by the network have only gotten more intense since. Check out the first officially released promo below:

The next trailer shook up the Super Bowl, and it manages to combine hope and apocalyptic doom in a way that will leave goosebumps lingering up and down your arms. Check it out below:

Wasn’t dramatic enough for you? Don’t worry, they released another. But don’t let the low voices fool you; there’s plenty of menace in what’s being said. Count the dead bodies in this trailer if you don’t believe us:

Oh, but wait, there’s a secret Westworld season 2 trailer

The team behind the hit show isn’t messing around. They hid a trailer within a trailer in the form of a website. You can only access the trailer through the secret site, and once you’re there, all you can do is watch the video. Postured as a fictional add for Delos, the video is creepily enhanced with intentional errors such as glitches and skipping in the script.

Head on over to the site for Delos Incorporated to watch the video and help break the codes. (Past video glitches have hidden codes that crafty Redditors have cracked.)