“Westworld” creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan have made good on their promise to reveal everything about Season 2 of the HBO series, and now no mystery about the show remains.
PSYCH. We all just got WestRolled. In a massive fakeout, they released what quickly turned out to be a video of Evan Rachel Wood singing a surprisingly good ballady-version of Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up.” That’s followed by 20 minutes of black-and-white footage of a dog sitting in front of a piano.
This all started during the married duo’s Reddit AMA Monday when Nolan told the “Westworld” subreddit that if the post got 1,000 upvotes, they would release a super-spoilery video explaining season 2, with hopes that those who know the plot can protect others from getting spoiled.
Obviously, enough people upvoted the post to get the video posted. But you didn’t think they were actually going to reveal actual spoilers, did you?
Not that Nolan and Joy didn’t go the full mile to make it look like the real deal. The Rickroll was preceded by dreamy footage purported to be from the upcoming season, narrated by co-star Jeffrey Wright.
“Our season begins with Bernard waking up on a beach,” Wright says. “He can’t remember what happened, or how he got there.”
What follows are scenes in which Bernard is supposedly captured and questioned by Delos security. We see hosts being summarily executed. We see scenes of dusty, Old West towns. “Can he remember Dolores?” asks Wright. “Can he remember the choice he made?”
Then cue Wood and her Rickroll. Song concluded, we’re shown a black screen and the following message: “Dear Reddit, from all of us here at “Westworld,” thank you for watching. We hope you enjoy season 2.”
Honestly, we’re extremely impressed. Well played, you magnificent bastards.
Jennifer Maas contributed to this post
“Westworld” Season 2 premieres on April 22 at 9/8 c on HBO..