HBO has canceled its sci-fi series “Westworld” after four seasons, despite the show’s creators hoping to wrap things up with a fifth and final season.
The network announced the cancellation in a statement Friday.
“Over the past four seasons, [co-creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan] have taken viewers on a mind-bending odyssey, raising the bar at every step,” the statement from HBO read. ”We are tremendously grateful to them, along with their immensely talented cast, producers and crew, and all of our partners at Kilter Films, Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television. It’s been a thrill to join them on this journey.”
Joy and Nolan reacted to the cancellation with their own remarks.
“Making Westworld has been one of the highlights of our careers,” they said via a statement from their production company, Kilter Films. “We are deeply grateful to our extraordinary cast and crew for creating these indelible characters and brilliant worlds. We’ve been privileged to tell these stories about the future of consciousness ― both human and beyond ― in the brief window of time before our AI overlords forbid us from doing so.”
Although “Westworld” was a hit when it debuted in 2014, Variety notes that ratings fell each subsequent season, with a dramatic drop in Season 4, which ended Aug. 14.
Still, the show was a buzzy part of the zeitgeist, nominated for 54 Emmys over the years and winning nine, including the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama award for Thandiwe Newton in 2018.
The series premiere of “Westworld” boasted HBO’s highest viewership for a premiere since the launch of “True Detective” in 2014. After that, the first season of the sci-fi drama became the most-watched freshman year of any HBO original series ever.
Joy and Nolan had hoped for “Westworld” to conclude after five seasons.
Joy told TheWrap in August that she and Nolan “always planned on ending the series next season,” but noted, presciently, that “life can make other plans for you.”
In recent weeks, viewers noticed that HBO’s streaming platform, HBO Max, has started removing content in anticipation of a merger with Discovery.
Twitter users were melancholic about the cancellation.
