HBO premiered a new teaser trailer for their highly anticipated sci-fi/western series Westworld before Game of Thrones last night. The trailer is the first since a 30-second teaser that played during the True Detective series finale last August.
The new trailer shows us more of the futuristic world of Westworld, which is a Wild West-themed “adult amusement park” set against a beautiful canyon and filled with human-like robots there purely for the pleasure of the visitor. Put together by Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), the simulation gets out of hand when the “attractions” become self-aware. “In this world, you can be whoever you want,” promises a saloon girl played by Thandie Newton. There are no rules in Westworld, and no telling what’s real and what’s not.
The show is based on the 1973 film of the same name, written and directed by Michael Crichton. The movie was mildly successful, but is often overshadowed by Crichton’s pop-culture explosion via another utopian-park-gone-wrong tale, Jurassic Park. Crichton is said to have used the script for Westworld as the blueprint for Jurassic Park, which came 20 years later. Lisa Joy, who previously worked on Burn Notice and Pushing Daisies, and Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises) are credited as creators of the HBO series, and J.J. Abrams is an executive producer.
Westworld, which also stars Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris, James Marsden, Shannon Woodward, Jeffrey Wright and Ingrid Boslø Berdal, was put on hold last fall after production got ahead of the writing. It was also reported that a few of the casting contracts got a little demanding and messy, per Variety. Production resumed earlier this year, and the series is set to premiere on HBO this October. Watch the new trailer above, and try not to spend the rest of your day wondering if you’re living in reality.