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Westworld: "We'd Like to Finish The Story We Started": Jonathan Nolan

Series co-creator Jonathan Nolan is making it clear that they're still very much committed to giving Westworld the ending it deserves.

By now, fans are more than aware of what went down with Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy's sci-fi drama Westworld. After Warner Bros. Discovery-owned HBO pulled the plug on a fifth & final season – one that was reportedly being negotiated over shortly before the news broke, the series was expunged from Max (still HBO Max at the time). Two months later, the series would find a new streaming life on Roku & Tubi. But while some see the Season 4 finale, "Que Sera Sera," as a series finale (it was too cliffhanger-ish for our liking), it was clear that there was a better-defined series finale planned before the plug was pulled. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in support of his upcoming Prime Video series Fallout, Nolan shares his thoughts on what went down – and makes it clear that he hasn't given up on finishing their story.

"Yes, 100 percent. We're completionists. It took me eight years and a change of director to get 'Interstellar made.' We'd like to finish the story we started," Nolan responded when asked if he was still holding out hope that the show's final chapters would see the light of day. As for the series ending up on Roku and Tubi, Nolan actually sees that as an advantage viewers-wise. "Look, my career began on CBS [with 'Person of Interest']. The amount of people you can reach with a free, ad-supported service [like Roku and Tubi, which had Westworld last year] is vastly higher than with a subscription service. That part didn't bother me." In terms of the first four seasons, Nolan appreciates the time they were given and is "fucking proud" of what they were able to accomplish. But with that appreciation and pride comes a desire to finish the story as they intended it. "In terms of finishing the story, you understand that you get the time that you get, sometimes it's as much as you want, sometimes it's not. I'm so fucking proud of what we made. It was an extraordinary experience. I think it would be a mistake to look back and only feel regret [over how it ended]. But there's still very much a desire to finish it," Nolan added.

"It was devastating in a lot of ways because, first of all, they don't tell us where the show is going. We were just always told, 'We know how the show ends,' when we started," Evan Rachel Wood shared during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "They weren't writing it as we went along. They had an idea, and we were all just on a bed of nails waiting to see and hear what the conclusion of this was. What it all meant. We didn't get to have that, and so after building an arc and a character for almost 10 years and not getting the payoff at the end to see where it was all going — I think for us and the audience, it was awful in a lot of ways." Before you ask? Yes, Wood did check in with Nolan and Joy to get a sense of where things might've gone – but to no avail. "I asked the creators after we got canceled, 'Can you please just tell me how you're going to end?' And they wouldn't tell me [laughs]. I think because, I don't know, maybe somehow, someway, in some iteration, we'll get to finish it, but I still don't know. It does still keep me up at night," Wood added.

Westworld Star James Marsden: Series Ending Was "Disappointment"

Someone else disappointed by the series ending was James Marsden (Teddy), who returned in the fourth & unexpectedly final season. "I'd be lying to you if I told you that the way we ended 'Westworld' wasn't a disappointment," Marsden shared during an interview with Rolling Stone. "I'm never going to speak without gratitude about any of my experiences, but it would have been nice to be able to complete the story we wanted to finish."

Marsden continued, "I love this 'Westworld' family. It was one of those unique opportunities to be part of something where I also would be sitting at home ravenously waiting for the next episode as a fan. I totally understand it's an expensive show and big shows have to have big audiences to merit the expense; I just wish it was about more than financial success." That said, the actor holds out some hope that the full story could still find its way onto screens. "Who knows, maybe there's some world where it can get completed somehow. Maybe that's just wishful thinking because I know we had plans to finish it the way we wanted to," Marsden added.

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