Westworld: Everything We Know About Season 3

When it comes to mysterious and unpredictable storytelling, there are few modern shows that do it as well as Westworld. The series is ostensibly a remake of the classic 1973 movie, which was written and directed by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton. But while the story basics are the same, under the guidance of showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the series has gone in a very different direction.

The setting of a Wild West-themed amusement park populated by robots that start to malfunction has allowed Nolan and Joy to explore a variety of intriguing themes, from the nature of self-determination and consciousness to the balance of power and trust between big business and the wider society. The high-caliber cast has included Oscar winners Anthony Hopkins and Ed Harris, plus acclaimed stars such as Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, and James Marsden. Every episode of Season 1 deepened the mystery and the show delivered one of the most memorable and shocking final scenes of 2016.

Season 2 premiered in 2018 and took the story into even stranger and more surprising places. But while Season 1 left many plot strands hanging, Season 2 offered more closure while still paving the way for a third season, with Delores having escaped the park to enter the real world. Westworld Season 3 will finally arrive in 2020. Unsurprisingly for such an enigmatic show, very few plot specifics have been revealed so far. But the trailer shown at San Diego Comic-Con revealed a few details, and Nolan and Joy have dropped some clues about the direction of the new series. So while we wait for it to arrive, here's everything we know to date about Westworld Season 3...

Westworld Season 3 premieres on HBO on March 15, 2020.

Some of the key cast members from the previous two seasons are back for Season 3. We know that Evan Rachel Wood (Dolores), Thandie Newton (Maeve), Jeffrey Wright (Arnold/Bernard), and Tessa Thompson (Charlotte) are set to return, and the trailer revealed that Ed Harris will also make an appearance as the Man in Black/William. And this being Westworld, a few surprise appearances are to be expected too--Anthony Hopkins in Season 2 being an obvious example of a character return no one thought would happen.

There are some notable new additions to Westworld in Season 3, the biggest being Aaron Paul, best known for his role as Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad. Paul will play Caleb, an LA construction worker who the actor described as having a "complicated past." Another big name joining the cast is French icon Vincent Cassel, and while we don't know anything about his role yet, his brief appearance in the trailer definitely implied a villainous one. The other notable additions are rapper/actor Kid Cudi--aka Scott Mescudi--who previously appeared with Paul in the movie Need for Speed, and award-winning Master of None writer and actor Lena Waithe.

Of the most exciting things about Westworld is the scope for different "worlds" in the vast theme park. While Season 1 kept to the Wild West environment of the title, Season 2 took us to Shogun World, which delivered some thrilling Kurosawa-inspired samurai action, as well as The Raj. Although it looks like much of Season 3 will be set outside the park, the trailer also gave us a glimpse of a world set during World War II. According to reports, this is called --you guessed it--War World and will be set during Fascist Italy in the 1940s.

Westworld's strength (and let's face it, sometimes its weakness) is the mysterious, unpredictable plot. As a result, Nolan and Joy rarely reveal anything of much substance about the story in advance--and if you think they have, they are almost certainly trolling you. But based on the trailers, we do know a few things. Joy has described the third season as a "radical shift," and one big change is that a significant part of the show will be set in a futuristic city in the real world, where Dolores encounters Caleb. Maeve, meanwhile, ends up in War World, and we might find out more about the five pearls smuggled out of the park by Dolores, each of which contains the consciousness of an so-far unknown host. Or, this being Westworld, we might not. There's also a mysterious new company involved somewhere, named Incite, who, according to November's trailer are "a firm that harnesses unprecedented computing power to solve the world's unsolvable problems."

The full trailer was revealed at SDCC in July, while a second teaser appeared in November.

While future seasons of Westworld have not yet been greenlit, HBO does have deals in place to ensure Nolan and Joys will continue making them if they are. In addition, Bloys mentioned "potential fourth and fifth seasons" during a Television Critics Association panel in July.

For more check out GameSpot's full Westworld Season 2 breakdowns.