Filming for Westworld season 4 pauses production after a positive COVID case. The epic science-fiction drama series was created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, based on the 1973 film of the same name written and directed by Michael Crichton and starring Yul Brynner. The show premiered on HBO in October 2016, taking place in a Western theme park filled with technological androids known as "hosts" and featured an all-star cast of Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Jeffrey Wright, and Thandie Newton.
The series explores the themes of cerebral consciousness and artificial existence through its monumental settings. As the seasons went on, the show expanded to different atmospheres with the third season abandoning the Western genre and focusing on a more futuristic, modern dystopian landscape. Westworld is currently filming its fourth season that will bring back Wright, Newton, Harris, and Wood, (despite her character Dolores Abernathy appearing to meet her end in the season 3 finale), along with Aaron Paul, Jimmi Simpson, Tessa Thompson, and Luke Hemsworth.
Deadline has now reported that Westworld is the latest show to halt production for its upcoming season after a positive COVID case was found from a production member during the show's consistent testing protocols. The filming for season 4 will pause for two days in the next week, after it began earlier this summer. The news comes almost immediately after many other shows had to take a break from production due to positive cases, including the upcoming seasons of Bridgerton, American Horror Story, and the Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon.
The announcement is certainly alarming for Westworld, given the rise of cases that continue to spike across the country and around the world, and specifically that their production is large in scale and shoots in various places around the globe for its seasons. With the shutdowns starting to once again become a recurring matter for various productions, it is important that everyone remains safe and handles production with care and caution as films and shows start to resume filming.
Despite the setback for Westworld, season 4 plans to release sometime in 2022, so the shutdown should not affect that particular aspect if everything goes back according to schedule. While the series does not have a release date, the return of the drama is highly anticipated after a complex and convoluted season 3 finale left fans with a lot of questions. It is clear that production for Westworld is a vast and complicated process and requires hard work from hundreds of people, and hopefully it is able to resume filming season 4 soon, with its whole team in good health.
Source: Deadline