‘Westworld’ Co-Creator Jonathan Nolan Announces Controversial Plan to Spoil Season 2 in Advance of Premiere
- Jonathan Nolan plans to post a video on Reddit spoiling all the twists and turns of "Westworld" Season 2 in advance of the show premiering.
[Update April 10]: Nolan released the video as promised after his post received more than 1,000 upvotes. The video was revealed to be a prank. Find more details on the video release from IndieWire here.
Earlier:Jonathan Nolan has introduced a controversial plan to preserve spoilers for "Westworld" Season 2. The showrunner took to his personal Reddit account to explain that he'd like to post a video on the "Westworld" subreddit page spoiling all the twists and turns from Season 2 of the HBO series in advance of the show premiering. Similar to how "Game of Thrones" book readers preserved spoilers because they already knew them, Nolan reasons that "Westworld" fans would do the same.
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"I greatly enjoyed watching the friendly folks at this subreddit guess the twists and turns of [Season 1]," Nolan said, "[but] it creates a larger problem for us, though, in terms of the way your guesswork is reported online. 'Theories' can actually be spoilers, and the line between the two is confusing. It's something we've been thinking about since last season. The fans of 'Game of Thrones,' for instance, rallied around and protected the secrets of the narrative in part because they already knew those secrets (through season 5)."
The final decision is reliant on Nolan's announcement post earning upwards of 1,000 upvotes on his Reddit page. Nolan figures that once the video is posted, anyone on the "Westworld" subreddit who wants to the season to be spoiled for them will watch it and hopefully help the showrunners protect the rest of the fan base by helping them "distinguish between what's 'theory' and what's spoiler."
"Westworld" Season 2 begins airing on HBO April 22. Read Nolan's official announcement below. IndieWire has reached out to Nolan and HBO for further comment.
Many thanks for your great questions and thoughts. As I've said before, I've been a member of the reddit community for years (no I'm not going to share my original username…). And I greatly enjoyed watching the friendly folks at this subreddit guess the twists and turns of the season.
It creates a larger problem for us, though, in terms of the way your guesswork is reported online. 'Theories' can actually be spoilers, and the line between the two is confusing. It's something we've been thinking about since last season. The fans of Game of Thrones, for instance, rallied around and protected the secrets of the narrative in part because they already knew those secrets (through season 5).
We thought about this long and hard, and came to a difficult (and potentially highly controversial) decision. If you guys agree, we're going to post a video that lays out the plot (and twists and turns) of season 2. Everything. The whole sordid thing. Up front. That way the members of the community here who want the season spoiled for them can watch ahead, and then protect the rest of the community, and help to distinguish between what's 'theory' and what's spoiler.
It's a new age, and a new world in terms of the relationship between the folks making shows and the community watching them. And trust is a big part of that. We've made our cast part of this decision, and they're fully supportive. We're so excited to be in this with you guys together. So if this post reaches a 1000 upvotes we'll deliver the goods.
Hasta victoria siempre!
Jonah and Lisa
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