Showrunners in Dolores, End of the series – Variety

SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read if you haven’t seen “Crisis Theory” yet, the season 3 finale of “Westworld”.

A lot happened in the finale of “Westworld” season 3: On the one hand, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) managed to eradicate all-knowing artificial intelligence, Rehoboam, but in doing so it seemingly wiped out of existence, all while the world real fell into chaos: that we had to find out what it all meant. Executive producers (and real-life partner) Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, along with executive producer Denise Thé, who co-wrote the finale with Nolan, spoke to Variety about the implications for the future of the HBO series, the mysterious connection between the ending and the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether the show’s legendary six-season season is really in the cards.

So, let’s start with the most immediate question: Will Evan Rachel Wood leave the show?

Jonathan Nolan: I hope not. Let me clarify. Dolores left. We’re not publicly discussing the direction the show is taking yet, but the fun of this show is that, from the start, Lisa and I wanted to do a show that constantly reinvents itself, which could be a different show every season. I think it’s important with a show in which death can be impermanent, these are robots, after all, to mark the occasion with Dolores. That version of that character is gone. We love Evan Rachel Wood and we haven’t[[[[sighs]I started talking publicly about what the show looks like in the future. But it looks very different.

For a character who is so central to the show for so long, that he erased like this, it was a truly amazing way to end his journey.

Denise Thé: I think it was painful, you know? It was painful to watch and act on set. It was painful to write. When we saw these memories that she was being absorbed by her, you had to relive her life with her and see these different atrocities that they did to her. So for me, that moment when he says he chose to see beauty is much stronger and much more beautiful because somehow you have traveled this path with her again and lived these moments with her. For me, it was a very powerful kind of transcendent moment where he completed his arc and really completed the circle, choosing to love these beings who somehow simply tore his life apart and rose above him.

In the end, the show really leaves the feeling that Maeve (Thandie Newton), the new Dolores / Hale character (Tessa Thompson) and Arthur (Jeffrey Wright) are going to lead the show now. I know you don’t want to talk too much about season 4, but is that a correct impression?

Nolan I would not make any assumptions. We are extremely fortunate. We have one of the most talented actors on television. And part of the fun of the show from the beginning is that an actor can play multiple roles and that the story changes underneath them: change gender, change time. One of the ideas of the program from the beginning is this idea of ​​agency. The formal quality of what a person looks like in front of who is below is something very slippery in this world, something very complicated. We love that and we love the challenge. It’s obviously an amazing cast, and giving everyone something extremely challenging is part of the fun. So I think we would anticipate seeing some or many of these faces in very different circumstances and very different relationships.

The protests against Incite in the end were quite suggestive given that in the past two weeks, and indeed even in the past few days, there have been intense protests across the country over restrictions on the COVID-19 pandemic. They filmed the finale many months ago, so what was it like for you to see the world leaning much closer to the world of your show than you might have anticipated?

Nolan That’s complicated. Lisa, unless you have a strong opinion on that, I know what me think.

Lisa Joy: Yes, well, let’s hear yours first, I’ll tell you if I agree.

Nolan Listen, in terms of time, we are much more inspired by the Hong Kong protests [in 2019]. I never anticipated in a million years that someone would be stupid enough to protest, you know, an illness, right? I mean, you’re looking for these moments when the way the United States used to be where we faced each other was clearly a collective, impersonal, and non-political issue, and we would address it as a nation together. This has nothing to do with what this program is about, but this is how complicated it is to make a program. The idea of ​​social revolution: it is an idea that people can interpret and reinterpret however they want. You let go of these things after you do them. If it resonates for people in different ways, it is not up to us to decide. Lisa, what’s your opinion?

Joy: I mean, I think it’s also like there are these kinds of circadian rhythms in life that are both micro and macro, right? So when we looked at Dolores’ arc, you know, she went from being in a loop where her life was in a way, and she stayed that way in Season 1 for a long time, so much so that she didn’t know she was in a loop and just gave sitting down that the days would continue that way. And then something happened and she began to realize the great and systemic lies and structures that existed in her life without her realizing them, and she learned to slip. Once she began to feel the breaks and the problems, they became impossible to deny, and the result for her was to leave them, to change her life.

And I think that in the same way that happens to people, it can also happen to organizations, these amalgams of people and systems and behavior that repeat themselves and somehow degrade or corrupt with repetition. I think human history tends to be cyclical, somehow. It is very difficult to have periods of … well, it has been impossible to have periods of uninterrupted peace, uninterrupted tranquility. Humans have not been good at it. They always break and then reassemble. It is terrible and difficult, but we are a species that, with luck, removes something with which they can start and build again. The idea that revolution is part of that cycle of human history is not something that we invent, it is something that is evident, if you look at any history of any society in the world.

It has been reported in the past that you conceived of “Westworld” by telling your story for six seasons. Is it still your goal?

Nolan Well, I just want to clarify, you know, Lisa and I have never talked about several seasons. James Marsden mentioned five [seasons] in the first season, when we were on hiatus, and more recently there have been reports of deals and the like. But we’ve never spoken out loud about how many seasons we imagine this to happen, because I think it would be silly. Things change, circumstances change. I think when we sat down to do the show, we didn’t realize how difficult it would be to do this show.[[[[laughing]how many years would it take per season. So we’ve never talked about how many stations that plan was, and in fact I think when we had the plan, it wasn’t actually assigned to a specific number of stations, exactly. It was a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Joy: It would be as if we were working on the novel and saying, this novel will have 436 pages.

Nolan [[[[Laughs]Exactly. We have been very lucky to work with this cast, this team, and now partner with Denise. When you have such a program, you want to stay as long as you tell a compelling story. We are heading towards that end, but we have not fully mapped it out. At this point, part of the job is to look at the rest of the story we have to tell. They are two impulses, one against the other. You don’t want to get away from people who are as talented and cool as this one. They are all lovely, lovely people, and they love working together, we like working together. At the same time, you don’t want to stay any longer. You have a story to tell, and you want to leave without feeling like you’ve exhausted your welcome. So we are trying to balance those things a little bit.

The show takes place in many different places and involves regular physical contact between its characters, both visceral and intimate. How might COVID-19 restrictions affect at least the show’s next season?

Nolan Well, I mean, for our part, the only good news in a situation like this is that the public is used to our show being off the air for a couple of years in a row. Now everyone else is in the same boat, frankly. I still have to listen to a speech on how I could, you know, safely, practically resume production. Illness on a set is extremely damaging, as you know in our business. The way we film, the amount of work and capital it takes each day to film on a show like this is extraordinary, as it is with all shows. It is a great machine; once you turn it on, turning it off again is extremely difficult. So I know a lot of really smart people are talking about going back to production right now. From our perspective, we weren’t playing here soon. We have to write it first. So it is not a problem that we are still dealing with and we are expecting smarter people than us to come back and explain how this can be done safely. At the same time, we have many people who need to go back to work. Again, it will be a balancing act in terms of making sure that, you know, the show must go on, but it must go on safely. So balancing those two things with each other is something we’ll talk about much later in the year.

You guys are still trying to figure out what you want to do for Season 4, but will we still be in the real world? Should we expect to return to the park?

Nolan We love you and say this with the utmost respect, but there is no earthly way to answer that question!