‘Westworld’ Canceled at HBO After Four Maligned, Meandering, Confusing Seasons

Another one bites the dust! The cost-cutting at HBO continues with the cancellation of Westworld, the ambitious (and expensive) series that left its ever-dwindling audience scratching their heads and wondering when, exactly, the show was going to fulfill its promise.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, the network said in a statement: “Over the past four seasons, Lisa and Jonah have taken viewers on a mind-bending odyssey, raising the bar at every step. We are tremendously grateful to them, along with their immensely talented cast, producers and crew, and all of our partners at Kilter Films, Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television. It’s been a thrill to join them on this journey.”

Kilter Films, the production studio owned by series creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, wrote, “Making Westworld has been one of the highlights of our careers.”

They continued to express their gratitude for the show’s cast and crew, and added, “We’ve been privileged to tell these stories about the future of consciousness – both human and beyond – in the brief window of time before our AI overlords forbid us from doing so.”

The series premiered in 2016 and ran for four seasons, premiering its latest season on June 26, 2022. While the show’s viewership has ebbed and flowed (reaching an all-time low with Season 4, leading our own Meghan O’Keefe to astutely wonder if the show was in its flop era), it has continued to gain general approval from critics as shown by its Rotten Tomatoes ratings. The first season debuted at an 87% approval rate while the subsequent one dropped to 83%. The show’s third season held its lowest score at 73% before rising to 76% for its final season.

Westworld boasted an all-star cast led by Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright, and James Marsden. The first two seasons also saw performances by Anthony Hopkins and Ben Barnes, and big-names like 2022 Oscar winner Ariana DeBose, Tessa Thompson, and Aaron Paul appeared in later seasons. In all, the show has been nominated for 54 Primetime Emmy Awards, taking home nine wins, including Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for Newton.

Though it might seem axing Westworld was another symptom of the Warner Bros.-Discovery, Inc. merger, helmed by CEO David Zaslav, which led to the cancellation of the Degrassi reboot that was set to premiere in 2023, along with Tuca & Bertie, Gordita Chronicles, KJ Apa’s Wonder Twins movie, and the highly-anticipated DC film Batgirl, THR’s sources tell them that this was not a cost-cutting measure. Which, in certain respects, is somewhat worse for the legacy of the show, as that leaves just the diminishing audience and (arguably) creative quality as factors for the cancellation.

Still, if anything can pull out a second life, it’s Westworld, a show that brought its own characters back repeatedly from the dead. Until then, Westworld doesn’t look like anything to HBO. For now, at least.