Once upon a time, Westworld was one of the biggest shows on HBO. The sci-fi drama came roaring out of the gate in 2016, racking up awards and thrilling audiences with its brainy brand of robot-vs-human violence.
But every season after the first got weaker and weaker. Fans got fed up, and by the time HBO aired season 4 last year, the audience was a tiny fraction of what it once was. Creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy had plans to finish Westworld with a final season, but HBO’s new parent company Warner Bros. Discovery opted to cancel the show instead.
Not only that, but you can’t even stream the first four seasons of Westworld on HBO Max anymore! Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav decided the company could get more return on Westworld by streaming the episodes through FAST services like Roku and Tubi, which is where the episodes are heading. It’s an ignominious end for what was once considered one of the most promising shows on TV.
Westworld star James Marsden is holding onto “wishful thinking” about finishing the show
One of the many actors blindsided by the announcement was James Marsden, who played Teddy Flood. We first met Teddy in season 1, when he was a bright-eyed, robotic host in love with Dolores Abernathy, a host played by Evan Rachel Wood. His robot body “died” in season 2, but his consciousness was uploaded into the Sublime, a kind of robot heaven. Marsden sat out season 3 but returned for season 4 as a new, entirely digital version of Teddy created within Dolores’ mind.
“I’d be lying to you if I told you that the way we ended Westworld wasn’t a disappointment,” Marsden told Rolling Stone. “I’m never going to speak without gratitude about any of my experiences, but it would have been nice to be able to complete the story we wanted to finish.”
"But who knows, maybe there’s some world where it can get completed somehow. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking, because I know we had plans to finish it the way we wanted to."
We heard that Warner Bros. Discovery did say that the Westworld team could make a fifth and final season…with a drastically reduced budget, but they turned that down. I’d say the chances of seeing a proper end to the story are pretty small, but it doesn’t hurt to be optimistic.
Final episodes of The Nevers will air on FAST streaming services, not HBO or HBO Max
Westworld was one of several shows Warner Bros. Discovery booted from HBO Max in favor of FAST streaming services like Roku and Tubi. Another was The Nevers, an ambitious fantasy/sci-fi drama from Joss Whedon, a Hollywood auteur who was driven out of show business by a series of scandals.
The Nevers was in a weird position. Filming on the first season was interrupted by the pandemic, so HBO was only able to air six episodes, with several put off until later. Then the stuff about Joss Whedon’s scandals hit. And the show wasn’t a huge hit. Warner Bros. Discovery considered all of that and decided to shuffle the show elsewhere.
That said, The Nevers did film an additional six episodes to round out the story, all of which will eventually air on Tubi and Roku, although we don’t yet know when.
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