The “Welcome to Westworld” featurette provides some insight about what’s going on behind the camera as well as in front of it, and features interviews with the series’ showrunners and various other members of the creative team, including producer J.J. Abrams. The other video released by HBO offers a brief introduction to two of the primary characters in the series: Thandie Newton’s Maeve Millay and Evan Rachel Wood’s Dolores Abernathy.
Premiering October 2, Westworld unfolds in and around a Western-themed amusement park populated by artificially intelligent robots whose primary directive is to indulge the desires of human guests, no matter how noble or depraved. When the android inhabitants of the park begin to question the nature of their existence, the lines between the brutal realities of the theme park and the outside human world begin to blur.
Westworld is executive produced and co-written by Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight, Interstellar), who also directs the pilot. It’s co-written and executive produced by Lisa Joy Nolan (Burn Notice, Pushing Daisies). Abrams serves as an executive producer through his Bad Robot Productions studio.
Along with Newton and Wood, the show features an all-star cast that includes Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins and four-time Academy Award nominee Ed Harris, as well as James Marsden, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Jimmi Simpson, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Ben Barnes, Simon Quarterman, Angela Sarafyan, Luke Hemsworth, and Clifton Collins, Jr.
Westworld is based on novelist Michael Crichton’s 1973 film of the same name, which he wrote and directed.
The 10-episode series premieres at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, October 2, on HBO.
