Westworld’s stars on how season 2 reflects #MeToo movement and the US political climate
Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton tell how their story arc will focus on their female characters’ battle against oppression and the chance to take power into their own hands
A surprising thing happened in the year and a half since the first season of Westworld confounded and attracted viewers with its knotted story of a futuristic android uprising at a patriarchal Western theme park.
At the centre of the revolt on different fronts were “hosts” Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Maeve (Thandie Newton), both of whom suffered horrific abuse and menace in carrying out their duties catering to the park’s wealthy, pleasure-seeking male patrons.
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With the arrival of the second season (which is showing on HBO On Demand, Now TV), the show’s vision of a dark, cynical tomorrow has moved past its source material’s roots of sci-fi entertainment to resemble a troubling reflection of what’s happening in the country’s political and cultural divides, as well as its #MeToo moment.
“It’s even more relevant now. Absolutely,” says Wood. In the first season, Dolores, a rancher’s daughter who is one of the longest-serving “hosts” in the park, has the simple optimism of her programming shattered and winds up as a leader in a robot revolution.
“It certainly adds extra weight to Season 2, because Season 2 is very much about the revolution and about the oppressed coming to take their power back,” says Wood. “I think it could be a metaphor for any kind of oppressed group of people or minority.”