HBO surprised its subscribers and the TV industry on Friday by announcing the cancellation of big-budget sci-fi series Westworld just months after the end of its fourth season, according to Variety.
According to recent announcements from two showrunners, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the series, which received 54 Emmy nominations, was due to end with its fifth season. The creative husband and wife couple had a specific ending in mind that would now not make it to the screen, although many viewers felt that the season 4 ending also worked as a closure.
Several factors contributed to HBO’s decision, including high production costs, declining viewership, and weak critical reception amid an overall cost-cutting effort by newly formed parent company Warner Bros. discovery. Westworld set records when it first hit the screens, but its viewership has dwindled with each season, and its recently aired fourth season has seen a particularly steep drop.
HBO is known for tent dramas, and its current lineup is ambitious and promising. It includes the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, the video game adaptation of The Last of Us, the critically acclaimed White Lotus and Legacy, and the hit Euphoria. With such an expensive series lineup, it also seems like the struggling world of the Old West may have gotten a little lost in the noise.
Calling Westworld “one of the highlights”of their careers, Nolan and Joy said in a statement that they “have been privileged to tell these stories about the future of consciousness – both human and non-human – in a short amount of time, before our AI overlords forbid us to do so.”
However, this is not the end of the road for the duo; their production company has signed a contract with Amazon and they are working on a new series based on the legendary Fallout video game franchise.