HBO Boss Addresses WESTWORLD Fan Theories and Why He Hasn't Renewed The Show For Season 2 Yet

Westworld has become the next big prestige show that everyone's talking about, which is great news for Casey Bloys. He's the new head of programming at HBO, and the network desperately needed a big hit with Game of Thrones coming to a close and a few high-profile but lackluster efforts not panning out (here's lookin' at you, Vinyl).

In a new interview with Variety, Bloys spoke about why he hasn't officially renewed the show for a second season yet:

"I want to get a very complete picture of the ratings, which seem to be doing very well, so we’re happy with that. [The executive producers are] going to talk to us about what they envision a second season being. But right now I would say it’s looking really good. We’re very pleased with how it’s doing."

Seems a little odd to me that the show hasn't been renewed yet, especially since the production specifically took a well-publicized break so they could map out five seasons of the plot. But I guess they Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and J.J. Abrams still have to officially pitch season 2 to Bloys, so let's hope that goes well.

Elsewhere in the interview, Bloys addressed some of the fan theories that have been floating around online about the show. I'm sure you've heard of most of them by now: the prominent ones involve William (Jimmi Simpson) and The Man in Black (Ed Harris) being the same person only 30 years apart, and Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) being an android. When mentioning what people should look forward to in the second half of season one, Bloys mentioned some of those theories:

"All I would say is, it’s a very satisfying end. I think questions will be answered. I love reading the fan theories online. I think it’s great the way people have engaged. I’m just pleased to see the reception from an engagement point of view, and that it has started all of these conversations. I think people will get the answers they’re looking for by the end of Season One. A lot of the ones that people are buzzing about. There are a lot of theories out there, and with some of them, I’ve been very impressed with how they’ve constructed the guesses. I’ll just say, they’re getting close.

I think a lot of the fans are engaging with Dolores and Maeve specifically, and so from an emotional point of view, I think that will grow, in terms of those characters’ journeys. And from a mystery point of view and a story point of view, I think you will get — I don’t know if “answers” is the right word, but maybe it’s “satisfaction.” You’ll see how Ford and the Man in Black play out by the end, story-wise."

Intriguing. He obviously knows how season one will end, and it'll be fascinating to see how many of the mysteries the show has set up will pay off relatively quickly. He sure seems to be indicating that we'll find out a lot at the end of season one, which leaves me wondering where the story will go in the future — assuming he grants them a second season, which seems all but a given at this point.

What do you think? What are your favorite Westworld theories, and which ones do you think could end up being true?