Things Get Sensual, Violent, and Nightmarish in New Trailer for HBO's 'Westworld'

HBO's controversial 'Westworld' gets a "mature" trailer packed with plenty of intensity.

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Image via Complex Original
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Damn. HBO's Westworld just keeps looking better. After giving prospective viewers a proper glimpse at the updated take on the OG 1973 Michael Crichton movie back in June, HBO has now released the so-called "mature" trailer. This two-minute peek at the vaguely controversial sc-fi series from executive producer J.J. Abrams takes a deeper dive into the idea of sin's "evolution," including the potential detriment of fully capable forms of artificial intelligence.

This fresh interpretation of Westworld is described as a one-hour drama "set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past," an intersection this new trailer reveals will seemingly include some hella aware androids. The 10-episode series stars Evan Rachel Wood, Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Tessa Thompson, and more. Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight) and Lisa Joy (Pushing Daisies) created the TV-ready version of Crichton's story, which will clearly differ at least a bit from its source material.

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"The show is complicated and ambitious," Nolan toldEntertainment Weekly in June. "For the first half of the series, we were writing while in production and we needed the time to catch up on scripts. Taking that time allowed us to really finesse all the storylines we set up—deepening character arcs and delving further into the series' larger mythological questions."

But Westworld didn't just make headlines for its dense production process. Last September, confusion briefly surrounded the series' production when a casting agency reportedly issued a consent agreement for extras that included phrases like "genital-to-genital touching." After giving everyone plenty of time to talk and/or write about it, HBO clarified that the document was not "requested, written, or approved by" the network. Shit still stands as some amazing marketing though.

Westworld premieres on HBO on Oct. 2.

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