HBO has shared their first legitimately explanatory trailer for Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s upcoming series, Westworld. From the 1.5 minute teaser released in June, those who previously had no idea what the film on which the series is based was about would have come away with little more than atmospheric impressions via a bounty of fragmented, prettily disturbing images. That was all great; the teaser trailer certainly enticed in its crypticness. The new trailer actually explains the world of Westworld — though I’m somewhat undecided as to whether that explanation helps or hinders its appeal.
HBO’s official description of the series is similarly vague, except insomuch as it teases what it clearly hopes will be an heir to Game of Thrones‘ throne, with its insinuation of a sex and violence saturated nightmare-scape. “Westworld is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin, exploring a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged,” reads the network’s description.
The series stars Anthony Hopkins, Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Thandie Newton, Ed Harris and James Marsden. In the trailer — which sets its focus on Wood and Hopkins, who seem to be the two central figures in the series — Hopkins’ character Dr. Robert Ford describes the odd world of which he’s an overlord to Wood, who seems to be one of his creations.
“Do you know where you are?” he asks Wood’s character, Dolores Abernathy.
“I’m in a dream,” she responds.
“You’re in my dream.” For Ford has “designed every part of this place — not a theme park but an entire world.” Then Jeffrey Wright, who plays Bernard Lowe — the maker of the sort-of-theme-park’s artificially intelligent beings — describes: “You and everyone you know were built to gratify the desires of the people who pay to visit your world.”
And then more exciting, striking Ex Machina meets spaghetti Western images flash by.
Watch (Oh, and they called this trailer the ‘Mature Version,’ so I guess it’s NSFW?):
[Via Indiewire]