While the dominance of HBO's fantasy series "Game of Thrones" is about to come to an inevitable ending, they have already loaded its successor.
"Westworld" just finished its maiden run and is now the most-watched first season in HBO history, a feat made official by Deadline.
"Sunday night audience for the season closer rose to 3.6 million, up 5% from last week and also a series high, as viewing on HBO's digital platforms more than doubled since 'Westworld' premiered in October. With an average of 12 million viewers across all platforms, 'Westworld' now ranks as the most-watched first season of an HBO original series ever."
The question on everyone's mind now is "What's next?" With "Westworld" being a science fiction series, we sought the answer to those burning questions.
Release Date: It was a no-brainer for HBO to confirm the second season, but the big question is how long the fans have to wait.
"Westworld" will continue to be HBO's best bet for the fall TV series, but unfortunately, that may not be in 2017. Casey Bloys, HBO programming president wants us to manage expectations as he told EW:
"My suspicion is sometime in 2018 because of how big the world is and what goes into shooting it. So I don't have a date exactly - they're going to have to map it out and write the scripts - but my guess is sometime in '18," Bloys said.
Plot: Season 2 will take on a more apocalyptic tone as it focuses on the hosts. Showrunner Jonathan Nolan mentioned the hosts' position in the EW interview.
"They're closer to biological than they are mechanical, but they don't suffer brain death the same way we do. They're largely indistinguishable from human beings, but their brains don't require oxygen-which opens up interesting possibilities," Nolan said.
Does that mean that they are virtually immortal? "Their brains are not as fragile as ours. On one hand, their cognition is controllable and malleable, but on a structural level, they can't be killed in the same way you and I can. There are advantages and disadvantages to being a host. [In] season 2, we'll be exploring more of the nuts and bolts of what they are-as the hosts themselves are trying to understand."
Season 2 could have a "Terminator" vibe to it. There will be multiple parks and this time, the humans are the prey based on a reference to Westworld as "Park 1."
There is speculation that they might adapt the theme of the other two parks from the original Michael Crichton series: Futureworld (which became a movie in 1976) and Samurai World. However, this could not be confirmed at this point.