What Year Does ‘Westworld’ Take Place?
The guests of Westworld may be taking a trip back in time. But what year does ‘Westworld’ really take place? Looks like a Redditor may have stumbled upon an answer!
If there’s one thing the producers of Westworld knew how to do well was mess with our idea of what year and time the stories were taking place. And they continued to keep us guessing by not giving us an exact start date of season 2. All we’ve learned so far is that Spring 2018 is when the show will premiere. At least we know what year Westworld Season 2 will start.
But some Westworld fans want to know what year the show takes place. Well, it looks like a fan on Reddit may have found a clue about an exact year on the Discover Westworld website. However, what he found was immediately removed from the site. So this could be just speculation as to when Westworld took place.
Let’s take a look at what was discovered.
A Little Time Stamp Never Hurt Anyone
[Credit: Reddit user Herbrax212]Back in 2016, Reddit user Herbrax212 visited DiscoverWestworld.com (a site created by HBO as part of their marketing of Westworld) and watched the video of Maeve escaping the park. In the upper left hand corner, he noticed a time stamp of “6/15/2052”. Woah, so did that mean when Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) shot Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) it occurred in the year 2052?
Well, not so fast. Once Herbrax212 posted the image, someone took down the video on the site and replaced it with a new one. We don’t know for sure if 2052 or what year is the real year Westworld took place. However, from what we’ve seen in the show, it might be possible to conclude that the show does take place in the future.
Can We Really Know What Year Westworld Takes Place?
2052 does sound plausible when you think about what year the events of Westworld occur. The idea that there are life-like robots interacting with people in a wild west setting leads us to believe that there have been huge leaps in artificial intelligence. But there are other hints that may prove that 2052 might be on target.
Advanced Technology
The facility where the hosts are created are filled with all sorts of hi-tech gadgets. There were several times where we saw new body being created by the use of 3D printing. This 3D printing technology at level doesn’t even exist. (Although there are companies working on printing body parts as mentioned in an article from Forbes.) Every time we saw Ford or Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) interact with a host, they were using a handheld tablets to adjust their programming. The technology was almost as advanced as the equipment in Star Trek.
An Odd Quote From Robert Ford
Go back to the first episode “The Original” and listen to Robert Ford’s speech to Bernard. He told Bernard about how far humans have advanced in the world:
"We’ve managed to slip evolution’s leash now, haven’t we? We can cure any disease, keep even the weakest of us alive and one fine day perhaps we shall even resurrect the dead, call forth Lazarus from his cave. Do you know what that means? That means we are done, that this is as good as we’re going to get."
Did Ford mean that they are now living in a world where everything has been cured? It sounds as though Ford has realized that mankind has reached its pinnacle. It doesn’t sound like Westworld takes place in our current time.
We may never find out what year or time frame in which the story of Westworld unfolds. Maybe the producers will give us a clue in season 2. No matter what, we are ready to watch what the hosts do next now that they are becoming sentient.
Westworld Season 2 will premiere in Spring 2018.
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