We don’t wish to hit the panic button but according to recent reports WESTWORLD is still not back before the cameras. As everyone has stated by now the show halted production to improve on the final scripts of the first season and that production would resume on the other side of the Holidays. Variety has just updated that line of thinking and has stated that filming would not resume until March!
We really are only following up on this report to ask some pertinent questions, though we don’t want to cast doubt onto the series. Though it has been reported that HBO claims the series will make its debut date of sometime in 2016 we have got to wonder just when that might be. Our speculation piece placed it as an ideal summer series after GAME OF THRONES’ season ends. With the final episodes of WESTWORLD not going before cameras for another month plus (as of this writing) we might not see the series until autumn instead? Keep in mind that after filming there is post-production editing, scoring, FX and such to do before it gets to our TVs. We guess that we can assume all will go well, but it just might air a bit later than hoped.
So is WESTWORLD having woes? Here at HBOWatch we really don’t think so. Often times when projects get retooled, as it were, that can spell doom for it. But, those types of changes are usually because of fundamental flaws in construct and perspectives that cause the show to go into hiatus and be reworked from the basics and that is NOT what appears to be happening with this HBO series. Apparently what is happening is that the series has gotten so far and then the back scripts or storyline was not as strong or as well defined as the earlier scripts, so much so that a rewrite was warranted so the season could end on a stronger note.
That type of work as happened before. It seems to me THE LEFTOVERS Season Two was cautious in that regard; and remember Aaron Sorkin’s breather before the final season of THE NEWSROOM? And it was clear that the whole Season Two of TRUE DETECTIVE should have been reworked. So the rewriting of a few 
scripts is not a bad thing. At least they are not starting from scratch. Besides around here we always say you can’t rush good quality.
Do don’t be alarmed about the reports you have seen about a huge halt in production. It is a good thing because it ensures that good judgement & quality control is being put into those concluding scripts instead of a mad dash just to get the show in the can. Be patient and we will be rewarded.
6 comments
Really sucks that they’re taking so long with this, but as long as it’s on my tv within the next two years (or god forbid longer), I’m happy. Especially after GoT season, this’ll hold my depression over. (Hopefully.)
For some perspective: True Blood filmed in the spring and aired in the summer for years. Westworld has several episodes and lots of footage in the can already. I think with an additional spring filming session they can get it ready for July, just like True Blood did 7 years in a row.
‘Be patient and we will be rewarded.’
Truth is, I don’t mind waiting. Been doing so for over 2 years, so 6 more months won’t make much of a difference. Still think they’ll be set for a summer premiere (July 10/17).
If they start shooting by February (as per Helen Shaver, director of the 8th), they’ll finish by the end of March. Post-production for the early episodes would be more or less complete. They can continue doing this for the last 4, right up until they air (which would be around mid-late August, or early September). Plenty of time.
I have to agree, especially after True Detective S2.
But the point is that Westworld was anounced for 2015, and I question their ability to produce S2, S3 in a yearly rhythm.
I’m still in awe that GoT does it every year.
I read somewhere that Nolan & Joy are working on the last 4 of 10 scripts. The original order was a 8-episode season, wasn’t it?
All early reports were extremely vague on the number of episodes. At some point it became clear that it was a 10-episode run. Yes, the scripts for episode # 7 – 10 are being tweaked.
Jeffrey Wright mentioned during a Collider interview for The Good Dinosaur in October/November that they’re presently doing the 7th of 10 episodes.
Guess is they’ll probably do a partial reshoot of the seventh, and go forward from there. Think the same happened for the fourth episode of the first season of The Leftovers (this was before they shut down after the sixth to prep the last 4).