Fans Are Fighting To Save A Canceled HBO Series
Westworld fans have set up a website and are petitioning to have the HBO show renewed.
Unfortunately, in the world of television, even the greatest of shows aren’t safe from being canceled, as fans of the near-futuristic dystopian sci-fi series Westworld discovered a few months ago when HBO announced the end of the series before its final fifth season. In an attempt to save the show, fans rallied together to create a Change.org petition, and now they are taking their efforts a step further and have created the website, SaveWestworld.com, according to MovieWeb. HBO announced the move to cancel the series after viewership declined during the third and fourth seasons.
The cancelation of Westworld after the fourth season leaves many open plot points in the series, which SaveWestworld.com has neatly outlined on their site under a tab labeled “Unresolved Mysteries.” Show creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan aimed to secure a fifth season in order to tie together these unsolved aspects and end the series with a satisfying conclusion. With the show’s untimely cancellation, fans are left crushed and without closure.
Westworld takes place in the near future after a re-imagined past. It explores the concept of artificial intelligence and the evolution of human sin when faced without consequence, as high-paying guests can visit an amusement park called Westworld and indulge in any fantasy through synthetic consciousness. The series is based on the 1973 film of the same name directed by Michael Crichton.
When the first season of Westworld was released, it gained major attention with high praise aimed especially towards the innovative visuals, great acting, and excellent storytelling. The show went on to win 54 Emmys and won nine times, including winning the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for Thandiwe Newton’s portrayal of Maeve in 2018. However, by season three, audiences began to criticize how many of the show’s storylines were conflicting, and the show’s initially high ratings dropped as low as 50%.
Although Westworld’s creators promised audiences that a fifth season would tie together the open-ended plot lines as it wrapped up the series, it seems that HBO didn’t want to take the risk of renewing the show after two seasons of continuously declining viewership. Considering the declining viewership, HBO’s recent leadership change, and the extremely high costs of producing a show like Westworld, it’s not surprising that the company decided to cut ties with the series.
In fact, in addition to canceling the show, HBO will also no longer be streaming past episodes on their streaming platform, HBO Max. This means that for fans of the series, there is next to no hope that HBO will change its mind and decide to renew Westworld after all. However, the third-party FAST Services streaming platform will take over licensing for previous episodes, and fans of the series will be able to watch Westworld there as well as other canceled HBO shows.
Westworld fans are steadfast, however, and HBO completely severing itself from the series could be a good thing for Westworld zealots as the show is now available for another platform like Netflix or Amazon to pick up. While it is unlikely that another streaming service will want to produce an expensive final season for the show, after the fight fans have been putting up to save the show, it’s still a possibility.
