Violent Delights

Westworld Is Back for Season Two – and This Time the Hosts Are Taking Charge

- Adam Tanswell

We’re in an Old West saloon, with flocked wallpaper and heavy ornate curtains. A woman sits at the piano in the corner, playing a tune. Any minute now a brawl could erupt and spill out into the hot, dusty streets. The only thing convincing our brains that we haven’t actually travelled in time is the air conditioning – and the fact that the woman tinkling away at the piano is Evan Rachel Wood, the star of HBO’s Westworld. We’re in the Mariposa Saloon, in the town of Sweetwater, which is really the Melody Ranch studios, a 45 minute drive from Beverley Hills. And Westworld Season Two is well underway.

Season One was a slow, cerebral journey through human rights, technology, power and abuse, which exploded into fountains of gore in the finale when the AI ‘hosts’ of Westworld rose up, killed their human master, and unleashed the mother of all rebellions. “[Season Two] hits the ground running,” Wood, who plays Dolores, assures us. “I think people are going to be surprised by the first few minutes of the show; pleasantly surprised and excited. It’s going to be absolute chaos.”