HBO's "Westworld", starring Anthony Hopkins/produced by J.J. Abrams

The Man in Black is based on the Yul Brenner character, but the creators 'flipped the script' by making him human, the reasoning for which they explain in a post-premiere interview with Hibbard.
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/10/02/westworld-premiere-interview

As for what he's after, he himself makes that clear as well: he's convinced there's a deeper level to WestWorld and wants to find it.

 

I've seen a lot of people identify the opening V.O. interviewer being Jeffrey Wright's Bernard Lowe, but I was under the impression that we saw the direct continuation of that scene after the shootout and in that scene, she was being interviewed by Luke Hemsworth's character Stubbs, so I'm a little confused.

 

He can say whatever he wants. People, and simulacrums of people, lie. A rogue robot who found a way to emulate human readings? Or a designer (Hopkins) who introduced a new breed of synthetics indistinguishable from biological humans to put chaos into the system? Is that really out of the question?

Granted, the writers have probably and sincerely flipped the Gunslinger story from the original Westworld. I'm just making suppositions for fun.

 

From a real world perspective they probably want them to have guns that can pose a real danger to humans if/when the robots turn against them.
It doesn't look HBO is putting the season up on ITunes or Amazon, so I don't think I'm going to watch the premiere. I don't want to torture myself by having to wait almost a year before geting to see the second episode.

 

It was a pretty good premiere. The scenery was certainly fantastic, despite being digital, and we've got some nice tension and mystery. Interestingly, it seemed like some of the dialogue suggested that this is actually a direct sequel to the original.

 

I thought the pilot was good and got better as it went along.

Spoiler

I loved the bluff re Marsden's character, Ed Harris scares the crap out of me and am I alone in wondering that if any character is going to be analogous to Bryner it'll be Delores?

I thought some of the dialogue/acting was a little ropey, mainly the sweary English writer saying fuck every other word. It felt forced and he didn't sell it well. Hopkins was good, thought Rachel Evan Wood was excellent and sheesh Marsden just doesn't age does he? Wright is good but he does just play the same character in everything now doesn't he? Intrigued to see where this goes

 

Spoiler

As I've already pointed out, Ed Harris' Man in Black is the "reimagining" of the Yul Brenner character; he's just been changed into a human.

 

Spoiler: Delores

But, if you think about it, they say she is the oldest model there and has been rebuilt multiple times. I think @Judge Death might be onto something.

 

That does not preclude another character from taking The Gunslinger's place.

That said, I think it was a reviewer who praised the show for not being a cheap knockoff of the original Westworld where "oh no, something's gone wrong," making the show richer, deeper and more complex and lasting. I can imagine a show where the attraction is devastated by some catastrophe and it's up to a small team of stars to play Gilligan's Island, trying to get the complex back under control for seven years. I'm so glad it's not that.

 

The opening voice over is Bernard and the dialogue is almost the same as the scene with Stubbs. I don't know exactly what that means, but there it is.

 

They're both hosts with the same programming.

 

I think my one hope is that it doesn't turn into another NuBSG; frankly by the time they randomly decided who the final five were I didn't really care, so if the Westworld staff turn out to be robots all along I'll be annoyed- if it's a single character that's fine, but I don't want weeks of who are humans and who are robots BS.

 

They've already mapped out a 5-year plan, Babylon 5-style, so the pitfalls of writing stuff as they go along should they get multiple seasons isn't going to be an issue, at least not the way some people feel like it was for BSG or for something like LOST.

 

They have? That's the first time I've heard that. Do you have an interview that you can link to?

 

Not quite. I would say that his character in "Westworld" is very similar to his character in the "Hunger Games" franchise. But that's about it.

 

Source?

 

Here you go:
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/09/08/westworld-plan

 

Nice, thanks! The article is a month old, but some of us didn't see that news. The article seems to be based upon the following quote - not from a producer or writer, but from an actor on the series. Not exactly the best source, but it's close. I'd have preferred it coming from Nolan.

The quote mentions "Jonah," but I believe it meant "Jonathan [Nolan]." Nobody hires good editors, if any, any more.

 

^ Jonah is Jonathan Nolan's nickname.

 

I didn't know. The editor should have inserted "Jonah [Jonathan Nolan]" at first use into the quote in the same way JJ was expanded.

By the way, I was going to say at least Westworld won't end up like Lost, but commenter Lauro Rojas, below the article, says, "'We know how it's going to end', famous words that were said when Lost came out." Really?