If the last two seasons of Westworld struggled to emphasize plot over cerebral fuckery, the third looks to course-correct—the first official trailer for the hit (?) HBO series upcoming episodes, which whisk us away from the show’s namesake park, makes it abundantly clear both the conflict and its players.
Yes, it’s another revolution. Against what? A man. Played by Vincent Cassel, who, intriguingly, is clad not in black but white. He’s got Thandie Newton’s Maeve under his thumb, and he’d like her to track down Evan Rachel Wood’s Dolores and kill her. Thus sets the stage for a battle between Maeve’s army—she’s carrying a samurai sword, natch—and Dolores’, which will get some help from Aaron Paul’s Caleb, who we’ve seen in the season’s previous teasers. Cassel, Dolores tells him, is “the person who took your future.”
“We’re looking at the aftermath of the massacre in the park,” co-creator Lisa Joy said of the season in an interview last summer. “After all they went through to get out of the park, Dolores finally got what she wanted, so we wanted to see how she interacts with the world and what her plan is. That’s a part of the story we were excited to tell.”
The shape of the season is still unclear, but, by the looks of this clip, the show will flaunt its new urban setting with by unveiling some elaborate futuristic architecture and promptly blowing it up. We’ll also revisit with some of the show’s other leads, including Jeffrey Wright’s Bernard, Tessa Thompson’s Charlotte, and Ed Harris’ scoundrel, who here declares that he’ll “save the fucking world.”
It’ll all build to some kind of apocalyptic showdown. “The real gods are coming,” Dolores intones, “and they’re very angry.” Sounds fun!
Westworld premieres on HBO on March 15.
