![]() ![]() It also didn’t help that HBO’s nearly as ambitious Vinyl had gone down in flames just months earlier. ![]() It would be a stretch to suggest that these exits were directly the result of any problems with Westworld, but their timing certainly fed the notion, fairly or not, that both the show and the network were struggling. And a few months later, HBO programming president Michael Lombardo would also suffer a sudden departure from the network. ![]() HBO drama chief Michael Ellenberg was pushed out of his gig in January, just as news of the Westworld break hit the TV industry trades. Still, talk of “chaos” on Westworld was also amplified by what was going on behind the scenes at HBO at the same time the series was taking its production hiatus. The shutdown was about “taking some time to gather their thoughts about where it was headed … It was a bit of a regroup and putting a puzzle together.” “They had to world-build, and there was more world-building than they realized in terms of the narrative,” our insider says. But they literally did need the time.”Īccording to sources, the problem for the producers was that, unlike Game of Thrones or True Blood, there wasn’t a preexisting series of books on which to lean in shaping the show - just a couple of 40-year-old movies. “When people say they need the time, it’s usually bullshit. Nolan and Joy “knew where they were headed, but they needed the time to put it all together,” one person familiar with the details of the shutdown tells Vulture. In the case of Westworld, it appears the latter description fit. Even though such hiatuses aren’t all that unusual, particularly for ambitious projects with big budgets, they also inevitably lead to chatter that a series is “troubled” or that producers are struggling to get a handle on a show’s creative direction. But as has been previously reported, HBO had to shut down production on Westworld for two months last winter in order to give producers Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan time to get a better grasp on what they wanted the show to be. Originally anticipating a 2015 debut, the network included the show in its Comic-Con and TV Critics Association press tour presentations that year, and even teased a 2015 launch via Vine. HBO began development on the show all the way back in August 2013, initially ordering a pilot and then picking the project up to series in 2014. The pre-launch skepticism surrounding the prospects for Westworld was mostly a function of its long and often messy journey from script to screen. One season does not guarantee long-term success, but for now, Westworld is a big (and much-needed) win for HBO - one made all the sweeter by the fact that many in Hollywood were convinced the show was destined to be a massive misfire. Much the way Netflix’s Stranger Things dominated the pop-culture discussion over the summer, Westworld broke through fall’s TV clutter in a big way, so much so that the writers of Saturday Night Live felt comfortable using its plot as a punch line. Westworld also worked because it managed to generate intense and sustained buzz throughout the fall, despite facing off against the return of AMC’s behemoth The Walking Dead and the usual slew of broadcast network fall premieres. Abrams–produced fantasy thriller have been strong, though with each episode pulling in an average audience of nearly 12 million viewers across multiple platforms, HBO execs are extremely satisfied. It’s not just that the ratings for the J.J. It took three years, upwards of $100 million in start-up costs, and one halt in production, but HBO’s Westworld ended its first season on Sunday as what’s arguably the network’s most successful drama launch since Game of Thrones. ![]()
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