With ‘Westworld‘ becoming a star studded extravaganza, it should be no surprise that HBO is feeling confident enough in the pilot to put in a full series order!

The series is based on the 1973 film by the same name and will be written by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, but the main talking point is that it will give Anthony Hopkins his first regular role on a television series. Major series and networks have been becoming increadingly attractive to major movie stars as production quality has gone through the roof giving us continuous plots that feel more like a season long movie instead of the episodic content of old.

The announcement came in an interesting fashion as the initial tease came in from HBO on Twitter of all places.

I’m not going to lie. I wouldn’t have guessed ‘Westworld’ right off the bat from this image. They followed it up by first giving us this:

Followed by a more revealing post to their Vine account:

Hopkins isn’t the only major name showing up in the series as we also have Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, and Ed Harris on board with a cast that is filled out with Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Shannon Woodward, Miranda Otto, Rodrigo Santoro, Simon Quarterman, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Angela Sarafyan, and Eddie Rouse.

Previously HBO programming president Michael Lombardo has said that, “This is built as a series and, in terms of storytelling, I think the rules are definitely being broken. The promise of the show, in terms of where it’s going, is exciting to actors, and they want to be a part of this.”

The logline for the show states that it is “Set in the amazing world dreamt up by Michael Crichton, Westworld is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.” The original movie had this play out in the Wild West, hence the name ‘Westworld’, however there were plenty of other virtual worlds where this could take place in. The original movie had androids malfunction and ignore the protocol that they weren’t supposed to harm any of the customers that came here to live in a land of murder and worse. It’ll be interesting to see how the worst humanity has to offer plays out in this new updated take on the tale.

I’m usually not one for reboots but with the cast and studio involved I’m willing to give this one the benefit of the doubt.

What are your thoughts on HBO bringing back ‘Westworld’? Do you think the premise is solid enough for an ongoing series or is this just another reboot that Hollywood doesn’t need to add to it’s collection?

Source: The Hollywood Reporter