Westworld season 3 to showcase a new world sans amusement park

With the season 2 finale receiving mixed responses, HBO has already announced the next season renewal of this fantastical thriller. Set in the fictional land of Westworld, a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park, the season 2 finale (titled 'The Passenger') was premiered on Sunday with twist and turns.

The finale episode showed how Dolores, William, the Ghost Nation leader Akecheta, and most of the Delos corporation go beneath the 'Valley Beyond,' which is revealed as 'The Forge'— a storage facility holding the recorded personalities of every Westworld guest. Looks like the Westworld will have new inhabitants to consider— Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and the hosts created by late Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson). With Bernard and Dolores sharing the same existence in the strange new world, wants to gain power over the human race while the another stands as the barrier.

While the third season is likely to set in a new world (rather than the park), it looks like season 3 will concentrate more on the conflict between Bernard and Dolores. However, makers HBO are yet to announce the return date.

Meanwhile, in an interview to Vanity Fair, co-creators Lisa Joy and Jonah Nolan have given few half-baked hints on how things will turn up in the upcoming season. "It's been a long build-up to get outside the park. We're incredibly excited about what that looks like and sounds like, and what exactly our hosts discover out there," Nolan was quoted.

So will the titular park be entirely abandoned? Joy cautions, "I don't necessarily think that we've seen the last of these artificial worlds that are central to the conceit of our series as a whole. But the major lens that we will have is going to be the real world. If the park does emerge and come back, we would plan on explaining how that could be, and why." Sources close to the makers also reveal that the decision to move the series out of the park is predominantly due to financial constraints and the declining ratings.

A slew of questions are yet to be answered in the next season—So who is in charge of Charlotte's host body? Who all managed to escape out of the park safely? Will Dolores bring back Akecheta or Teddy alive? Will the never-ending rivalry between Dolores and Bernard finally end? What will happen to Dolores' plan to use mankind's legacy in destroying them?