Westworld co-creator reveals plans for a potential season 5

Evan Rachel Wood as Christina in Westworld season 4
(Image credit: HBO)

Westworld showrunner and co-creator Lisa Joy has plans for season 5 – should HBO decide to renew the popular dystopian sci-fi series. Warning: Westworld season 4 spoilers ahead!

At the end of season 4, both humans and hosts are being wiped out – and Dolores realizes that the two cannot exist in the real world. While the series could certainly end on this powerful note, Joy reveals that the season 4 finale was not intended to be the series' end.

"From the very beginning, in season one, we talked about characters being on loops, and how do you break these loops? The cycles of violence, the cycles of destruction, the cycles of rebuilding. So you’re hoping that with each epicycle, progress is made – that you’re moving toward somewhere good," she explained to The Hollywood Reporter. "Hale has control this season. What role does she make? Ford had control – humans had control – in the first season. What does that look like?

"Now we’re moving toward, gods willing, a season in which Dolores has control and the cycle will repeat one last time. How will that be different? What new things can be learned? And, is it possible to even break out of that cycle?"

Joy went on to tell IGN that, she should they "get to a fifth season," she and co-showrunner Jonathan Nolan hope to explore the failure of both the human experiment and host experiment.

Westworld's season 4 finale is now streaming on HBO Max. For more, check out our list of the best new TV shows coming your way in 2022 and beyond.

Lauren Milici
Senior Writer, Tv & Film

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for 12DOVE currently based in the Midwest. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.

Read more
The Last of Us season 2 first look
HBO teases how many seasons The Last of Us will run for – and it's more than we expected
The White Lotus
A zombie Jennifer Coolidge in The White Lotus season 4? The cast reveal their hopes for the upcoming season of the hit HBO show
Mike, Eleven and Will in Stranger Things season 4 (2022)
Stranger Things season 5: Everything we know so far about the Netflix show's final chapter
Eleven holding out her hand in Stranger Things
Stranger Things season 5 releasing in 2025 might not be a certainty as its creators admit that target is "quite the push"
Rebecca Ferguson as Juliette in Silo
Silo season 3 is now filming and the script for season 4 is already complete, reveals showrunner: "Five weeks into season 1, we knew we were going to do the whole thing"
You season 5
You season 5: Everything we know so far about the final season of the hit Netflix show
Latest in Sci-Fi Shows
Alien Earth teaser
New Alien: Earth teaser introduces us to new cast members and the cutest little cat – and if a Xenomorph eats it, I will be furious
The Last of Us
The Last of Us season 2 is giving a game character the Bill and Frank treatment – and he's so deep-cut you might barely remember him
The Last of Us season 2 first look
Pedro Pascal says "beautiful" scene that made him want to join The Last of Us got cut, but it’ll thankfully appear in season 2: "He was like, ‘That’s half the reason I’m here!’"
Diego Luna in Andor
It looks like a key Star Wars event mentioned in Rebels will be shown in Andor season 2
Ncuti Gatwa in Doctor Who season 2
Doctor Who fans think they've spotted a tease for surprise villains in new season 2 trailer
The Xenomorph in Alien: Earth
New look at Alien: Earth has fans theorizing over whether they can hear a Predator in the background
Latest in News
Balatro
Balatro creator started "properly playing the game myself about a week before launch" and had "a pretty emotional moment" where he realized it's "actually fun"
Death Stranding 2 Collector's Edition
Hideo Kojima reveals Death Stranding 2: On the Beach release date, and the Collector's Edition includes exactly what I predicted it would
Kingmakers
Kingmakers is a strategy game about taking on medieval armies with a gun, but its devs thought the giant mech was too much
The Witcher 3 lead says "not many games" were trying to match the RPG back in 2015, and that meant "there was a risk" to making it in the first place
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 dev says his new vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker wants to challenge genre conventions, but only if "we're changing them to actually achieve some goal"
Daredevil recap: The Defenders
Marvel fans are discussing which of the Netflix series characters would have survived the Blip