Jonathan Nolan Still Wants to Finish ‘Westworld’

Although canceled almost two years ago, Westworld’s co-creator still wants to finish the show’s ending.

Jonathan Nolan, who co-created the HBO sci-fi series with Lisa Joy (based on the 1973 movie by Michael Crichton), is already off making a new TV series; he and Joy have since moved on to creating Fallout based on the popular video game series of the same name. But if given the chance, Nolan very much wants to conclude Westworld’s story.

HBO canceled the show after its fourth season. Nolan and Joy had always wanted Westworld to run for five seasons, and had a plan in place for that fifth season when HBO ended the series amidst declining ratings. Westworld’s series finale was never intended as such, and left its overarching story of a large-scale battle between man and machine very much unresolved.

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Nolan has moved on since then, but The Hollywood Reporter asked if there was any “hope” that the show’s conclusion “will be dramatized in any form — whether as a graphic novel or a movie event or anything.” Nolan replied...

Yes, 100 percent. We’re completionists. It took me eight years and a change of director to get Interstellar made. We’d like to finish the story we started.

If Nolan and Joy find some other venue, or even another medium, to tell Westworld Season 5, they would be following in the tradition of a few other TV shows that were unceremoniously canceled but then continued on thanks to fan demand. After Joss Whedon’s Firefly came to an abrupt and premature conclusion, he wrapped up the show’s storylines in a movie, Serenity. Whedon also continued Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel in a series of acclaimed comic books.

Nolan’s new show, Fallout, premieres on Prime VIdeo on