The Stakes And Scope Of 'Westworld' Are Going To "Increase Dramatically"

Season two of Westworld begins this July. The next chapter in Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy's series won't pick up exactly where season one left off. There's going to be a bit of a time jump, but of course, we'll see the effects of what unfolded in the season one finale. According to Lisa Joy,  the stakes and scope are now going to "increase dramatically."

Below, read what Joy and Nolan had to say about some of their plans for Westworld season 2.

While on Variety's Remote Controlled Podcast, Joy and Nolan discussed some of their ideas for season two, including keeping the Dr. Robert Ford's (Anthony Hopkins) spirit and motivations a part of season two. According to Nolan, we may get even more backstory on how Ford's park came to be:

I think the sacrifice he makes at the end of the first season is very real. I think there will be an opportunity to explore a little bit more of the backstory of how this park came to be, a little more of that story. We'll see the character's presence will be felt in that sense in terms of filling in a few more of the gaps about the early history of this place.

We'll learn more about "what's really happening in this place." They're going to dig deeper, which is exactly what Joy expects fans of Westworld will do (again). She's definitely embraced the fact every detail is going to go under a microscope, especially on Reddit:

For us, even though we're creating it as we go along, we feel like we owe it to the fans to be bold and also to play this game with them where we're like, 'Do you want to figure it out? Do you want to play with us here? Hopefully now, because of the first season, the people who want to have this purist interpretation of the series, they'll just develop their own theories in a vacuum — and maybe don't log on to Reddit.

Nolan added they're hoping to make the second season "twice as ambitious":

It's an ambitious season. We always knew that we wanted the stakes and the scope to increase dramatically and that means the scale of production increases as well. We have an amazingly talented group of writers, directors, and crew coming back and gearing up for what I think and what I hope will prove to be a season twice as ambitious as the first one.

While season one was about control, Nolan has said season two is about chaos. A part of that chaos involves the plan Ford set in motion last season. After what happened in the series finale, it's not surprising the stakes are going to increase, for both the hosts and the guests, but after seeing how Joy and Nolan's ambitions paid off in season one, it'll be exciting to see the Westworld story they deem "twice as ambitious."

Westworld returns to HBO in 2018.