Westworld: Why Aaron Paul should play a human character in season 3
Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul is the first to join Westworld’s season 3 cast. Will his character be a host or human?
Aaron Paul captured the hearts of countless fans with his incredible performance as Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad. He’s a versatile enough actor that he’ll own any Westworld role and take it to a new level.
From a narrative standpoint, though, it would be more advantageous for him to play a new human character rather than a host in season 3.
Season 2 ended with practically every major human character no longer among the living. Some like Theresa Cullen and Robert Ford perished in season 1 while many of the others–Charlotte Hale, Lee Sizemore, Emily, Elsie Hughes, and Karl Strand–met their ends in the final episodes of season 2. The likes of Arnold, Logan, and James Delos have also been gone for many years, though we’ve continued to see them and Ford in flashbacks and in other forms.
While all these deaths served a strong narrative purpose and in most cases acted as a satisfying culmination of these characters’ developments, it doesn’t change the fact that there are precious few living, established human characters left heading into season 3.
At this point it’s really just the Man in Black–at least in the present timeline–and everyone’s favorite duo Felix and Sylvester that are left. Ashley Stubbs is still alive, but his conversation with Halores in the season 2 finale pretty much confirms that he’s a host.
New, compelling human characters need to be added to the show. This is particularly important for Bernard, Dolores, and the other hosts she took with her to the outside world. They need to see the good, the bad, and the ugly of what humanity is like outside the parks.
In order to continue raising the stakes of the show, they will need to face humans who present more of a threat than anything the hosts faced inside the parks. Along the way, they’ll surely forge connections with human allies and get an overall taste of humans in their natural environment.
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Aaron Paul has the ability to play any of these types of characters. He could certainly portray a fascinating host, but we’ve got plenty of established, well-developed host characters in the outside world and still inside the parks. Westworld is in greater need of strong human characters right now and Aaron Paul can certainly deliver in that capacity.
Who would you like to see Aaron Paul play in season 3 of Westworld? Let us know in the comments below!