'Westworld' cocreator Lisa Joy reveals the main title for season 4
- Warning: Minor spoilers ahead for "Westworld" season four.
- Each season of HBO's "Westworld" has an overall theme, and this year that theme is "The Choice."
Starting with its debut in 2016, HBO's "Westworld" has tackled an overarching theme with each new season. The first season was "The Maze," while the second and third seasons were "The Door" and "The New World," respectively.
So what's in store for the characters this season?
"I call it 'The Choice,'" cocreator Lisa Joy told Insider during a Zoom call ahead of the fourth season premiere.
When asked to elaborate on how that theme was decided upon, Joy smiled and said: "You're gonna have to see."
That theme is already present in the first episode of season four, particularly with Evan Rachel Wood's new character Christina, a new host we meet as she goes through the loop of her story. In Sunday's episode, Christina's roommate Maya (played by Ariana DeBose) holds out a pair of shoes for Christina to choose from. One black and one white — just like the cowboy hats that guests get to pick in the original Westworld park.
"Pick a side," Maya tells her roommate. Christina chooses white.
We don't yet know exactly who or what Christina is, and how her character relates to Wood's original role of Dolores. But the new character's name is a direct reference to the original inspiration for Dolores.
Back during season one, Joy and her cocreator (and husband) Jonathan Nolan said that a painting by Andrew Wyeth titled "Christina's World" was one of the key references they used to create Dolores' character.
"I've always loved that painting," Joy told Insider. "That painting was one of the early inspirations for Dolores, and so when we were creating a new character we decided 'Christina' seems appropriate."
Christina's roommate sometimes calls her "Chrissy," creating an easy familiarity between the characters that brings the audience into a new world. The scenes with both women were shot on location in New York City, though "Westworld" has yet to confirm with audiences if this is a new theme park, the "real" world," or something else entirely.
"To have it suddenly be so familiar and naturalistic and casual — it's like it went from being a genre show and a period piece show to a very immediately recognizable world," Joy said. "And that was really fun. Watching Evan adjust her performance to play a contemporary was delightful. Everything from the way she walks to her laugh to the way her facial expressions move; it's just completely different."
So how else will "The Choice" theme come to be significant to the many characters — both host and human — on "Westworld"? Fans will have to wait.
New episodes air on HBO on Sundays at 9 P.M. ET.