rw2516

I'm sure this is all addressed in detail in the contracts. If production is delayed Hopkins is probably free to pursue other jobs. If he's busy when they are ready to resume production they will have to wait on him. It becomes one of those:
"When will we see season 2 of Westworld"?
"We're trying to make it happen. Just waiting for everybody's schedules to line up"

DJariya

You also have to take into consideration that this is an extremely complex show to write. I have to imagine that the scripts for season 2 will take months to complete before they can start filming.

This isn't like a network TV show where the writers have extremely tight deadlines and have to crank out scripts like a factory.

Coladar1

But issue number 1-1,000, that I had no idea about until this thread...? "This was finally picked up for S2."

That throws whole new kinks into the works, and minimizes, in my opinion, the fact that all the contracts are immaculate designs 100% geared toward the show. It means there either was a huge question about this show going forward, and little support/leverage for the long term, or else some serious behind the scenes issues (meaning, almost singularly for a show like this, contracts with talent *not* being locked up, causing the network to balk on renewal.)

The delay, even if the contracts are geared long term, well... there would undoubtedly be clauses that allow outs/opens if delays (like a renewal) outside of the actors power take place.

Bottom dollar, tl;Dr? If S2 had been ordered when anyone would have expected, I'd say, yeah, Ford as Hopkins going forward is a given. I think the delay in renewing, if not an indication that major talent wasn't signed up long term, is a near definite to throw some serious kinks into those contracts. Likewise, I'm not a lawyer or Hollywood type, so what do I know?

At least, normally, with a large ensemble cast of AAA talent like this, scheduling is far more of an issue than here, where each "star" is essentially in their own little world/separate filming schedule. So... I suppose that gives some hope moving forward, but the renewal delay is definitely hardly good news.

Bill Needle

Maybe they could have Hopkins pre-record a few tens of thousands of possible lines of dialogue in advance, like the SNL sketch where Tom Brokaw (Dana Carvey) pre-tapes Gerald Ford's (FORD!!!) death announcement before he goes on vacation in the event Ford dies before he returns.

BTW, it was hilarious:

<iframe width="683" height="384" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fvQKH1O4Hkw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

General Zod

I said this very thing to my wife at the end of the episode. They sky's the limit now. Even Ford could be one created by Arnold. Theresa will likely be back next week as a host (my guess is that's what Ford was actively working on).

Mr. Salty

Do we even know whether Season 2 will be a direct continuation to the storyline of Season 1? Ed Harris is signed for two seasons, but that's all I've seen confirmed. Maybe he's a bridge between storylines that have different casts and settings.

General Zod

Well the original Westworld movie had 3 different parks. Obviously this series is supposed to be focused on West World (The old west) but the others were Medieval World and Roman World. Not sure if this show is ever going to dabble in these areas or not but.. who knows.

Defiant1

I doubt it. Medieval World would be too close to Game of Thrones and Roman World to Rome. The budget is already huge; no need to make it even more expensive by introducing new worlds.

Coladar1

As someone below your post mentioned, they could certainly do other parks. But... that really could only cut out the Western Hosts - everyone at the company would conceivably be overrunning things elsewheres, which we just aren't seeing in this season, owing to the fact that Ford = God and Creator of all such hosts/parks/everything, and thusly we must assume those working around him are the top of the top at the company, who'd oversee every park... you just wouldn't / shouldn't have this elite of the elite, yet they only oversee a singular park. These are folks who clearly answer to no boss or manager save for the Board, yet if there were other separately staffed parks in existence, there would have to be precisely such a manager who has their fingers on the pulse of whatever division at each and every last park they operate.

So unless you mean something more like an anthology, totally separate+disconnected from everything that is S1, such a change wouldn't really resolve any of the casting contractual issues which could conceivably arise down the road given the AAA onscreen talent on the series.

Furthermore, I don't think such a path is the answer nor is it desirable. It'd do far more harm than good in my estimation. This show works because of the imminent dawn of independently sentient AI androids, and that is clearly happening primarily in Westworld due to Ford's seemingly laser focused efforts in the Wild West simulation they have created. It has been built around that very concept (+little to nothing else), and, given the exceptionally large number of characters/ensemble cast, we are very, very, VERY slowly having characterization building and backstories further revealed.

I think that, as such, an anthology premise would be greatly disjarring and utterly illogical+unexpected (meaning unwelcomed) by the audience as a whole. This particular story most certainly does not appear to lend itself to be fully resolved in only but a single short season's worth of episodes, so doing precisely that'd only be akin to catastrophically lighting their entire franchise ablaze + thumbing the figurative eyes of the fanbase.

Having S1 stand all on its very own ala Fargo or True Detective would, if only from my particular viewpoint, be far worse and damaging to the entire premise and fictional narrative than having a handful of casting issues getting back some of the fundamentals from this season. Westworld, in my belief, has the expectation of its audience that what you see is what you get so long as the series continues.

I mean goodness me, the title of the bloody thing is Westworld. That in itself doesn't give any real leeway to abruptly and completely shifting to Jurassic Park or Medieval Times, abandoning Westworld as a whole moving forward.

Why So Blu?

^ Call the second season Futureworld....

Mr. Salty

Westworld is science fiction, set at some unspecified future time. It's a park that has been in operation for decades.

The other parks from the original movie and its sequel are options. And there's nothing to prevent HBO from retitling the show to accommodate the new setting. Or not. Fargo isn't set in Fargo and has never been retitled to accommodate other settings.

Another option is to shift the period in which the show takes place. They could jump back to the Albert timeline, or to the future in the aftermath of whatever happens in the current season.

And people will watch it regardless because the first season has them interested and they want to see what happens next.

I suspect we'll have some idea of the direction after we see how this season wraps up. Maybe it will just be a continuation of this season's storyline.

But then the question becomes who will stick around and who won't. For one thing, Anthony Hopkins is 78. They need to take that into account if they're going to take years between seasons. And that's assuming Ford survives the season.

Bill Needle

And how do we know they haven't already done that?

Dun-dun-duuuunnn!!

fumanstan

I'd be pretty surprised if the upcoming seasons don't continue the storylines we're already seeing here in Season 1, mostly because I don't think many of the loose ends we're seeing now will be concluded by seasons end.

Original Desmond

That was stupid! that lady knew what was going to happen, she had old man hopkins in close range, knee him in the nuts, grab him by the windpipe so he couldn't issue a command to Bernard and end him !

This show is just doing enough to keep me watching but it aint no GOT or Breaking Bad or even shows half as good as them, not yet anyway