Are The Peripheral & Westworld In The Same Shared Universe?

Is it possible that The Peripheral and Westworld take place in the same universe? It doesn't take an AI super-brain to see the parallels between Amazon's The Peripheral and HBO's Westworld TV show. Both are based on popular sci-fi stories, both are produced by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, both take place in near-future dystopias, both incorporate hyper-real androids posing in the guise of humans, and both are prone to causing headaches. Given their innate closeness, it's only natural to ponder whether The Peripheral and Westworld exist within the same shared universe.

Officially, the answer is a pretty firm "no." There's no overt indication whatsoever that The Peripheral and Westworld are narratively connected, although you might say they're spiritual cousins, given the mirroring of the themes at play in each. Not only are both shows airing on different networks (The Peripheral on Amazon Prime Video, Westworld on HBO), but Michael Crichton's original Westworld movie bears little resemblance to William Gibson's 2014 The Peripheral book. The similarity is more obvious on TV than in the source material.

Could The Peripheral & Westworld Exist Within The Same Universe?

Even if The Peripheral and Westworld don't officially share a world, is it canonically possible? Do their respective timelines and histories match up well enough that audiences can at least imagine they're co-joined? Not really, no. From The Peripheral's opening two episodes, we know the world is vaguely intact in 2032 (albeit rapidly falling apart). There's then an apocalyptic event sometime around 2042, and by 2099 there's a rebuilt London filled with nanobots and covered in giant historical statues.

In Westworld's fictional timeline, 2032 marks the early years of the WestWorld park, and it's plausible this could happen in conjunction with Flynne and Burton Fisher's present timeline in The Peripheral. Westworld season 1 then takes place around 2052, which should be shortly after The Peripheral's apocalyptic event, but not only is there no sign of devastation outside the robotic wild west, there's no mention of such a cataclysm even in the flashbacks that take place a decade prior, making a connection between shows all but impossible. The final nail in the coffin is Westworld season 4, which takes place around the mid-2080s, and ends with humanity and hosts wiping each other out. The Peripheral's future timeline is only a few years ahead, and there's absolutely no correlation between worlds, nor anything in The Peripheral to suggest humanity has recently recovered from the Man in Black's species-ending assault.

How The Peripheral Can Fix A Westworld Mistake

Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Christina in Westworld season 4

Westworld arrived in 2016 with considerable fanfare and an all-star cast, receiving rave reviews from critics and fans despite its convoluted nature. That success progressively dwindled through subsequent seasons, with weariness over the constant, unending vagueness and string of mind-boggling twists frequently cited as a factor in that downturn. Whatever potential Westworld might've had hasn't been fulfilled, and at the time of writing, there's doubt over whether HBO will green-light one final season to wrap up the cliffhanger of Westworld season 4.

The Peripheral poses an opportunity to amend those mistakes. Episodes 1 & 2 introduce similar themes with a whole new batch of burning questions and mysteries concerning the nature of reality. The clean slate offers a chance to avoid the same pitfalls as Westworld - not becoming bogged down in one-upping previous twists and defying Reddit theories, and keeping the show's primary focus on character. The Peripheral's early episodes begin promisingly in this regard, affording Chloë Grace Moretz's Flynne and Jack Reynor's Burton plenty of character moments, while answering a series of big time-travel plot points straight off the bat.