Westworld redefined what 'TV twist' meant when it first aired back in 2016 - and there's no doubt that season 2 will be doing the same - but rest assured that it won't just be us who are surprised by the show's mind-blowing events. The cast have no idea what's going on either!
I talked to them recently about the new season and, as well as telling me how they keep secrets on set, they also revealed which shocking season 1 twist they didn't see coming. I'll give you three guesses, but you're probably only going to need one... and, fair warning, if you haven't seen season 1 yet - spoilers!
"I think it was, for me - when we were shooting the first season - when we found out Bernard was a Host. That for me was like, 'You’re kidding?!'" Simon Quarterman says. "And I remember Jeffrey telling me... we were having a drink and he was like 'Yeah, I just found out I’m a Host' and I was like 'Fuck off!' I just didn’t see any of that happening or ever being a thing, and then after that happened I’m like “Alright, who else is a Host?'"
Ah yes, the whole Bernard's really a Host reveal was one of the best moments of season 1, and will no doubt feature heavily in season 2, but Quarterman can feel better because he wasn't the only one who didn't see it coming.
In fact, Shannon Woodard thinks she had it worse: "I didn’t know that Bernard was a Host, but I was also doing all of these scenes with Jeffrey, where I just didn’t know why he wasn’t always looking me in the eye that much, and he just had this very particular tone - how he was speaking. And after an episode or two I was like 'Maybe I’m too... maybe I’ve got to chill out…' and Lisa Joy saw me in a rehearsal change and was like 'Stop, stop, stop! Don’t do that! Don’t change anything about what you’re doing!' and I’m like 'But...' and she was 'Let him be legato and you can be staccato, just let that happen!' And I was like 'Alright.'
They even barred her from entering some of the sets: "They wouldn’t let me in to see Evan shooting scenes with Jeffrey, because he was playing Arnold in those scenes, and they knew I would know. I was like 'I can go in there…' [and they were like] 'Oh, it’s a closed set' and I was like 'They’re going to let me in, nobody cares, it’s alright!' and they were 'No, no, no, we’re just going to wait!' and I was like 'Why is everybody being so weird about it?'"
It kind of makes you wonder what else they're hiding from the cast...
Westworld season 2 premieres on April 22 on HBO in the US and a day later on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK, and you can read about the 13 things we found out about the second season when we interviewed the cast here.
