- Guide
- Westworld
- Updated
- Status
- This guide covers all four seasons of Westworld and is complete: HBO canceled the series in November 2022 after season 4, and no revival has been announced as of October 24, 2026.
Westworld Seasons Guide: Episode Counts, Dates and Where to Start
Westworld ran four seasons and 36 episodes on HBO from 2016 to 2022 before its cancellation. This guide lays out what each season covers, how long it is, what happened after the cancellation and where to start.
The Westworld seasons guide: all four seasons explained
Westworld is an American science-fiction Western drama created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy for HBO. It is based on the 1973 film of the same name, written and directed by Michael Crichton, and loosely on its 1976 sequel, Futureworld. Nolan and Joy served as showrunners. The setting is a technologically advanced theme park styled as the Old West, run by a company called Delos in the 2050s and populated by lifelike android \"hosts.\" Wealthy guests can indulge any fantasy there without fear of retaliation, because the hosts are programmed not to harm humans, and their memories are reset after each narrative.
Delos operates several parks, and Westworld is the American Old West one. The park's operators write narratives for the hosts to carry out with the guests, and the company holds that machines cannot be harmed by these scenarios the way a human would. The questions the series asks about memory and consciousness draw in part on the psychologist Julian Jaynes's bicameral mind hypothesis, and the writers have cited the novels of Philip K. Dick as a source for dilemmas about machine minds.
The first practical question is how many seasons of Westworld there are, and the answer is four. The series premiered on HBO on October 2, 2016, and the last episode aired on August 14, 2022. In that time HBO broadcast 36 episodes: 10 in season 1, 10 in season 2, 8 in season 3 and 8 in season 4. A fifth and final season was planned, and Nolan and Joy were in talks with HBO about it, but HBO canceled the series on November 4, 2022. The table below gives each season's dates, and the section after it describes each one without revealing how it ends.
The show changes shape more than most. Season 1 stays inside the park and follows a programmer, a park founder, a mysterious guest and several hosts who begin to behave in ways their code does not explain. Season 2 follows the consequences, with the story widening across the whole park. Season 3 leaves the park and moves to the real world, where a powerful predictive system named Rehoboam shapes people's lives. Season 4 jumps forward and changes the premise again. Wikipedia notes that reception declined from the second season onward, with criticism aimed at the scripts, the characterization and the opacity of the narrative, while the first season was acclaimed for its performances, visuals, themes and Ramin Djawadi's score.
The series won nine Primetime Emmy Awards out of 54 nominations, and Thandiwe Newton won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2018. Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright and Ed Harris appear in the main cast across all four seasons. James Marsden is listed for seasons 1, 2 and 4, Anthony Hopkins for season 1, and Aaron Paul and Vincent Cassel for season 3.
On order, watch in broadcast order, season 1 to season 4. The series is serialized, and the first season keeps several of its questions open until the final episodes, so reading episode summaries first spoils the experience.
Westworld seasons at a glance
| Season | Episodes | Aired | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1: The Maze | 10 | October 2 to December 4, 2016 | Inside the park, with hosts starting to deviate from their code |
| Season 2: The Door | 10 | April 22 to June 24, 2018 | The park in upheaval, and new corners of it, including a Japanese-themed one |
| Season 3: The New World | 8 | March 15 to May 3, 2020 | Out of the park and into the real world in the mid-21st century |
| Season 4: The Choice | 8 | June 26 to August 14, 2022 | A time jump, New York City and a new kind of park |
Episode counts, air dates and season titles follow the series, episode-list and season pages on Wikipedia, checked October 2026. The four seasons add up to 36 episodes.
The season-by-season guide
Each section covers one season in order: the premise, the length, the key people and the episode titles. None of them gives away how a season ends. Anyone asking how many episodes of Westworld there are can use the headings for the numbers.
Season 1: The Maze (10 episodes, 2016)
Season 1 premiered on October 2, 2016, and ended on December 4, 2016, with 10 episodes. HBO announced the pilot order on August 31, 2013, and the pilot was shot over 22 days in August 2014 in and around Los Angeles and in Moab, Utah. Nolan directed the pilot, \"The Original,\" and the finale, \"The Bicameral Mind,\" a title that points to the bicameral mind hypothesis of the psychologist Julian Jaynes, which the series draws on.
The setup is the park itself. Bernard Lowe, the head of the programming division, traces odd behavior in some hosts to a software update from the park's founder, Dr. Robert Ford, played by Anthony Hopkins. Dolores Abernathy and Maeve Millay, played by Evan Rachel Wood and Thandiwe Newton, begin to recall things they should not. A guest known as the Man in Black, played by Ed Harris, searches the park for a hidden maze. The titles include \"Chestnut,\" \"The Stray,\" \"Dissonance Theory,\" \"Contrapasso,\" \"The Adversary,\" \"Trompe L'Oeil,\" \"Trace Decay\" and \"The Well-Tempered Clavier.\"
Nolan and Joy worked with most of the cast on a need-to-know basis in the first season to keep the story fresh for them, and Hopkins, who was told Ford's general arc, still had to insist on complete scripts. The first season is the most self-contained stretch of the series and the one critics praised most. It is also the one that depends on being watched in order, because the way its storylines relate is a central part of the experience.
Season 2: The Door (10 episodes, 2018)
HBO renewed the series for a ten-episode second season in November 2016, and it premiered on April 22, 2018, and ended on June 24, 2018. It picks up in the aftermath of the first season's finale, with the park in disarray. Dolores's revolution continues, Maeve searches for someone she believes is her daughter, and Bernard and the Delos staff try to regain control.
The season widens the map. The episode \"Akane no Mai\" takes Maeve's party into Shogun World, a Japanese-themed park designed to be more extreme than Westworld, and \"Kiksuya\" centers on Akecheta, a host of the Ghost Nation, with flashbacks to his life before the uprising. Lisa Joy directed \"The Riddle of the Sphinx.\" The other titles are \"Journey into Night,\" \"Reunion,\" \"Virtù e Fortuna,\" \"Phase Space,\" \"Les Écorchés,\" \"Vanishing Point\" and the finale, \"The Passenger.\" Wikipedia states that reception began to decline from this season, with criticism of the scripts and narrative opacity. Thandiwe Newton won her Emmy in 2018, the year this season aired.
Season 3: The New World (8 episodes, 2020)
HBO renewed the series for a third season on May 1, 2018. Production started in April 2019, and the eight-episode season premiered on March 15, 2020, and ended on May 3, 2020. It takes place three months after the events of season 2 and leaves the park for neo-Los Angeles. A company called Incite runs a predictive system, Rehoboam, that Dolores wants to reach. Aaron Paul and Vincent Cassel joined the main cast, with Paul playing Caleb Nichols and Cassel playing Engerraund Serac.
The tone shifts from a theme-park mystery to a near-future thriller. Wikipedia notes that the season received positive reviews at first, but that reception became mixed during the second half, with praise for performances, visuals and the change in tone and criticism of the story and dialogue. The episodes are \"Parce Domine,\" \"The Winter Line,\" \"The Absence of Field,\" \"The Mother of Exiles,\" \"Genre,\" \"Decoherence,\" \"Passed Pawn\" and \"Crisis Theory.\" HBO renewed the series for a fourth season on April 22, 2020, shortly before the season 3 finale.
Season 4: The Choice (8 episodes, 2022)
Season 4 premiered on June 26, 2022, and ended on August 14, 2022, with 8 episodes. It is set seven years after season 3 ends and is largely set in New York City. Filming took place at Melody Ranch Studio in Newhall, California, and wrapped in December 2021 after a brief pause in July 2021. Wood plays both Dolores and a new character, Christina, a writer at a video game company who creates storylines for non-playable characters. The season also features a park modeled on the Roaring Twenties.
The episodes are \"The Auguries,\" \"Well Enough Alone,\" \"Années Folles,\" \"Generation Loss,\" \"Zhuangzi,\" \"Fidelity,\" \"Metanoia\" and the finale, \"Que Será, Será.\" Wikipedia describes the series as ending with an unresolved outcome. Nolan and Joy had planned a fifth season, and HBO canceled the show before it could be made, so the season 4 finale is the end of what exists.
From the 1973 film to HBO: where Westworld comes from
The series is the second television version of Crichton's original story. The first was Beyond Westworld, a 1980 CBS series that aired three episodes before it was canceled. Warner Bros. had considered a remake of the film since the early 1990s, and the producer Jerry Weintraub pushed the idea until HBO agreed to a pilot. He brought it to Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, who saw a chance to do something more ambitious than the film. J. J. Abrams, Weintraub and Bryan Burk were executive producers alongside the creators.
Nolan said the writers took Abrams's suggestion to tell the story from the hosts' point of view and ran with it. They drew on video games such as BioShock Infinite, Red Dead Redemption and Skyrim for the idea of non-player characters living their own loops, on the films of Sergio Leone for the Western look and on the novels of Philip K. Dick for dilemmas about machine consciousness. The 1973 film also featured Roman World and Medieval World, which the series set aside until a sword-and-sorcery area, Park Four, showed up in season 3's \"The Winter Line.\" The show was shot on 35mm film, and the first season used Steadicam for most of its run.
Crichton received a \"based on\" credit. His estate argued in a 2024 lawsuit over a different project, The Pitt, that his contributions warranted a \"created by\" credit for Westworld.
Cancellation, the HBO Max removal and where Westworld streams now
In October 2022, Nolan said at New York Comic Con that he and Joy were in conversations with HBO about a fifth and final season. On November 4, 2022, HBO announced that the series was canceled, and the principal cast received their pay for the canceled season. Wikipedia attributes the removal that followed to cuts at Warner Bros. Discovery after its merger. Westworld left HBO Max on December 18, 2022, along with several other series, to be shopped to free ad-supported streaming networks.
TVLine reported on January 31, 2023, that Westworld would stream free on Tubi from as early as February 1 and on Roku later in spring 2023. The present picture is less clear. An availability listing on JustWatch checked on October 23, 2026, shows no subscription service in the United States and no free option, with digital purchase on Amazon Video, Apple TV and Fandango At Home. A February 2026 Collider article pointed readers to HBO Max, so the catalog may have changed. Check a current listing before subscribing.
The four seasons are also on disc. Season 1 was released on Blu-ray, DVD and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on November 7, 2017, the first scripted series released on 4K Blu-ray in the United States. Season 2 followed on December 4, 2018, season 3 on November 17, 2020, and season 4 on November 29, 2022.
Where to start, and is there anything new in 2026
Start at the beginning. The pilot, \"The Original,\" sets up the park, the hosts and the main characters, and season 1 is the part of the series with the clearest structure. The show does not suit skipping, and there is no alternate watch order. Viewers who find season 1 absorbing can treat the later seasons as a different kind of story, because the setting and tone change at season 3 and again at season 4.
No sources checked for this guide report a revival or new season. Nolan and Joy have continued working on other projects, and the series stands as four seasons with an open ending.
The entries that matter when time is short
These eight episodes carry the most weight if only part of the series is on the schedule. Titles and numbers follow the episode lists on Wikipedia.
- Season 1, episode 1, \"The Original\": the pilot, directed by Jonathan Nolan.
- Season 1, episode 10, \"The Bicameral Mind\": the first-season finale, also directed by Nolan.
- Season 2, episode 1, \"Journey into Night\": the season opener, picking up after the first-season finale.
- Season 2, episode 5, \"Akane no Mai\": the visit to Shogun World.
- Season 2, episode 8, \"Kiksuya\": the episode built around Akecheta of the Ghost Nation.
- Season 3, episode 1, \"Parce Domine\": the premiere that leaves the park for the real world, directed by Nolan.
- Season 4, episode 1, \"The Auguries\": the premiere that introduces Christina and the time jump.
- Season 4, episode 8, \"Que Será, Será\": the series finale, aired August 14, 2022.
Reading on Westworld
0 takesRough Cut Review's other pages on the series go deeper into single seasons, episodes and characters than this guide does.
Frequently asked questions about Westworld
How many seasons of Westworld are there?
Four. Westworld aired on HBO from October 2, 2016, to August 14, 2022. A fifth season was planned but never made.
How many episodes does Westworld have in total?
36 episodes: 10 in season 1, 10 in season 2, 8 in season 3 and 8 in season 4.
How many episodes are in each season of Westworld?
Season 1 has 10, season 2 has 10, season 3 has 8 and season 4 has 8.
When was Westworld canceled?
HBO announced the cancellation on November 4, 2022, after the fourth season had finished airing in August 2022.
Why was Westworld canceled?
Wikipedia connects the removal from HBO Max to cuts at Warner Bros. Discovery after its merger, but the sources checked for this guide do not give a stated reason for the cancellation itself.
Was Westworld removed from HBO Max?
Yes. It was removed on December 18, 2022, as one of several series cut to be shopped to free ad-supported streaming networks.
Where can I watch Westworld in 2026?
A JustWatch listing checked on October 23, 2026, shows no US subscription service and no free option, with digital purchase on Amazon Video, Apple TV and Fandango At Home. A February 2026 article pointed to HBO Max, so check a current listing.
Is Westworld finished?
Yes. The series ended with season 4, and a planned fifth and final season was never produced. No revival has been announced.
Where should I start with Westworld?
Start with the pilot, \"The Original,\" and watch in broadcast order. Season 1 is the most self-contained part of the series.
Is Westworld based on a book or a movie?
A movie. It is based on the 1973 film written and directed by Michael Crichton and loosely on its 1976 sequel, Futureworld.
Who created Westworld?
Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy created the series and served as showrunners.
How many Emmys did Westworld win?
Nine Primetime Emmy Awards out of 54 nominations, including Thandiwe Newton's supporting actress win in 2018.
What is each season of Westworld called?
Season 1 is The Maze, season 2 is The Door, season 3 is The New World and season 4 is The Choice.
Is there a Westworld season 5?
No. Nolan said in October 2022 that conversations with HBO about a fifth season were under way, but HBO canceled the series a few weeks later.