Westworld: The shocking and puzzling stock photo theory

Following the second episode of Westworld season 2, an interesting stock photo theory emerged that sent fans down the theory rabbit hole.

Westworld season 1 was something we can never forget and from it came many speculations and interesting theories. As we made our way into season 2, a very intriguing theory emerged involving the photo that made Peter Abernathy glitch in season 1 and the woman from the photo.

The Huffington Post had a very interesting article in which they broke down the mystery of the stock photo and spoke to the women who was in the photo–and wait for it, was also in an episode. Uh, say what?

Okay, so let’s make sense of what exactly what we are trying to say here. In season 1 of Westworld, there was a specific picture that Peter Abernathy looked at of a woman posing in Times Square that had him malfunction.

Within the reality of the series, this was supposed to be a picture of Juliet, William’s future wife. The fact that this picture defied Abernathy’s reality is what sent him in a short-circuiting frenzy. So take a look at this picture below as we see in the episode.

But this is where it gets super interesting! Naturally, when Abernathy started dysfunctioning fans were freaking out and pondering what was going on. However, further investigation revealed that the show used a stock photo for this scene instead of hiring an actress and taking the picture themselves.

Embed from Getty Images

The picture above is the original stock photo taken by a photographer named Erik Von Weber. Anyone else think this name sounds familiar? Erik Weber…Arnold Weber.

It appears that Von Weber’s images have been used on many sites and his picture being used in the show wasn’t all that shocking. However, if you look at the collection of Weber’s photos you’ll be surprised to see he also has images of horses, cowboys, and wait for it, samurais.

Take a look at this comparison image from Redditor azreinman:

"Erik Von Weber comparison (notice the helmet) from r/westworld"

Interesting, right?

Well in season 2, episode 2 “Reunion”, the woman from the stock photo actually made an appearance in the show! Yes, that’s right. HuffPost reached out to the actress, Claira Unabia, and spoke to her about going from the stock photo to being on the actual show.

Upon inquiring, Unabia revealed that when she posed for the photo it wasn’t meant to be a stock photo.

"“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know if they got that photo that way, because that picture, as far as I know, wasn’t for a stock photo. I don’t know if that’s actually the way that they got it. I’m not sure. I’ll just put it out there that maybe it wasn’t actually a stock photo.”"

Not to mention, she remembered that the job involved a “technology company”. Could she be referring to Delos or Westworld? Seems very likely.

Could there truly be a connection between Erik Von Weber and Westworld? Given that this HuffPo article came out some months ago, it’s tough to say whether or not this could be the case but if it is, it could mean many, many things for the future of the show, and give away some massive hints at what’s to come.

Some of Weber’s other stock photos include images of barbarians and knights. Cough, Medieval World, cough.

What do you think of this stock photo theory explained by HuffPo? Share your comments below or on our Twitter, @BeyondWestworld.