Since the fourth season of Westworld ended last August, speculation was heavy about what direction the popular HBO program would take in season five. Although star Ed Harris told The Hollywood Reporter, “We have one more season, which will start filming next April and May,” the highly acclaimed show was canceled by HBO.

Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy also previously discussed season five being the finale with The Wrap, saying, “We had always planned on ending the series next season, you know, we always thought that Westworld should kind of come full circle and back to the West.”

So that gives us a bit of a hint of what we would have seen in season five, but what else might have satisfied fans in the concluding chapter? Season five would have followed the previous seasons, which were titled “The Maze,” “The Door,” “The New World,” and the most recently concluded fourth season, “The Choice.”

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Westworld Season 5 Could Have Gone Back to Its Roots

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First off, we would have wanted to see the return of every major character, including series regulars Ed Harris as The Man in Black, Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Abernathy, Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe, Thandiwe Newton as Maeve Millay, James Marsden as Teddy Flood, Tessa Thompson as Charlotte Hale, Angela Sarafyan as Clementine Pennyfeather, and Aaron Paul as Caleb Nichols. Whether in the current narrative or flashbacks, the story strands of the regulars all deserved to be tied up and finalized.

As for the fate of the show’s leads, Dolores and The Man in Black, co-creator Joy told The Wrap:

But on the supporting characters, Joy stated:

Westworld started as a relatively simple concoction in the established Michael Crichton tradition of an elaborate, futuristic amusement park going out of control. It then became a complicated juggernaut of action, character studies, themes, and stylish, gleaming scenery. Going back to basics would have been necessary, especially after the tangled developments involving the war between humanity and the robot hosts that began a few seasons back.

The finale of season four presented quite a predicament with Charlotte/Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) announcing, in her quiet, perfectly poised manner, that she’s ready to design her own game. Her narrator’s explanation made for one of the series’ most moving and intriguing speeches:

Of all the speculation, a few significant elements had appeared to be set in stone: Westworld season five was to take place inside a simulated version of the Westworld park generated by Dolores from the Sublime, and there would be no limits on which cast members could appear. The bottom line on what we had hoped to see is a solid story-ender, in which characters’ fates were profoundly defined, capped off by the powerful resolution of the epic man vs. machine showdown. Without a doubt, Westworld season five looked prime to deliver.

The Finale Could Have Cemented the Legacy of Westworld Among HBO Classics

The stakes would have been high for season five, but the pieces were ready to fall into place for a stellar Westworld wrap-up. Fans would have been satisfied, as the show left behind another solid HBO series franchise.

The premium cable channel/streaming service has racked up a roster of high-quality programming over the last few decades with such ultra-popular dramas as The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, and True Blood, to name five. Westworld’s now-canceled final season might have joined the finished runs of those and many other modern classic HBO series.

Shocked fans quickly launched a petition, hoping to see one last season. Time will tell if that will move the needle. Until then, audiences can watch the show from the beginning, make new theories, scour interviews, and hope that HBO has a change of heart regarding season five.