We have a little less than a month to go until Season Two of Westworld premieres, and HBO is not letting us forget it. Yesterday, the television network dropped a beautiful new trailer for the upcoming season of its latest hit series, and it is nothing short of stunning. The trailer manages to tantalize without telling us much, and convey a sense of mellow restraint, even as corpses litter the ground of almost every shot, and human and robot alike charge into battle. Overall, the trailer somehow manages to convey tones of understated sophistication equally mixed with uninhibited rawness, and if we weren’t excited about Westworld Season Two before, we certainly are now!
From the sweeping cinematography, to the ever evolving characters, to the inspired compositions of Ramin Djawadi, whose cover of Nirvana’s “Heartshaped Box,” looms and lingers over all the frenzied feuding and quieter contemplations of a world at war, it’s easy to tell there’s nothing quite like Westworld.
Check out the trailer, and then join us below as we discuss its highlights:
https://youtu.be/sjVqDg32_8s
As with every HBO trailer for one of their major series, there’s a lot to process here, and at almost three minutes long, the trailer is a dizzying barrage of locations, characters, and thematics. It’s impossible to cover everything, but let’s talk about what really stood out.
One of the opening images of the trailer is Bernard seemingly waking in the surf of the ocean. Later, we see corpses floating in the waves. He tells Dolores, “I dreamt I was on an ocean. You, and the others, on the distant shore.” The corpses, and Bernard’s unconventional choice of a napping locale are unsettling, but so is his suggestion of a separation between himself and Dolores and “the others.” After all, Bernard recently learned he himself is not human. What are the implications of him distancing himself from Dolores and her friends, all of whom are robots like him? As the trailer goes on, he seems to be tagging along with the human antagonists. Poor Bernard– existential crises are never fun.
Speaking of Dolores, she features heavily in the trailer. No longer taking a passive approach, we see her actively getting revenge against the humans in the park, chatting with Bernard (or perhaps Arnold), and doing some research in a dark library. It’s great to see Dolores independent and in charge.
You can tell Dolores and her allies are succeeding at their violent ends, as well– there’s a lot of carnage in the trailer, most of which seems inflicted on human guests of the park. It’s a little grisly, even if Dolores has justification for the massacre, and the long suffering Teddy points this out: “We’ve ridden ten miles, and all we’ve seen is blood,” he informs Dolores, “Is this really what you want?” Sorry, Teddy, something tells me the answer is yes.
While Dolores is a polarizing character, we must not forget Maeve, whose journey towards discovering the truth of her existence was one of the most fascinating plots to follow last season. We see Maeve and Dolores reunited, but it looks as if they are almost at odds. Maeve, who seems focused on finding her daughter, doesn’t appear too happy about all of Dolores’ bloodshed. Even if she and Teddy might agree, Dolores’ devoted admirer backs her up and points his pistol at Maeve. It’s a shame to see Maeve and Dolores aren’t of one mind. Dissension in the ranks is never a good sign, especially when it comes to revolution.
Inside a Delos lab manned by intimidating, faceless hosts, we get a look at something being created. It has the signature faux-biological look of the inner workings of the hosts that we saw last season, but it’s a ruddy red rather than the creamy white that previously composed the majority of the makeup of the hosts. It’s clearly in-the-works, but I can’t help but find it a little evocative of a heart. To go a step farther into wild speculation, its circular shape and deep red color is rather evocative of a pomegranate, which in Greek mythology served as an object of temptation that once consumed, bound the innocent Persphone to the Underworld forever– she could leave, but she always had to come back. Such symbolism is a reach, but it’s still fun to contemplate.
The Man in Black is back and he does not seem to pleased. The black hat and the promise of blood in the still here is a little reminiscent of the macabre Westworld Season Two poster which was released earlier, even if it doesn’t seem like William actually kills himself in the scene from the trailer. Either way, he may not enjoy his time in the park this season.
Finally, we get some very interesting glimpses of the much anticipated counterpart to the titular Westworld, “Shogun World,” such as this striking geisha.
Meanwhile, the ever adaptive Maeve seems to have embraced Japanese attire. There are a few other shots of the enigmatic home of the Shoguns, but they yield little information. We’ll just have to wait for the show to air.
There’s a lot to take in and a lot to look forward to.
What are you most excited for when Westworld premieres on April 22nd? Comment below!
