Secret title of Westworld’s second season offers up a major hint

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The fabulous first season of HBO's Westworld offered up plenty of twists and turns for fans, some of which where deciphered early on and others which remained a mystery until the very end, and with the second season now just a little over a month away, we're about to be tossed down the rabbit hole once again. Each season of the series carries with it a secret title which is used by the writers and producers, and while speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Westworld co-creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan revealed the secret title of the second season, which apparently offers a major hint as to where we're headed.

"If the first season was a journey inward, this is a journey outward," Nolan said. "This is a search for what is else is beyond the park, and what else is in the park. Are there more parks? How big is the park? What’s beyond the park? We think of our seasons as discrete components in the series, to the point where we’ve named our seasons. The first season was called ‘The Maze.’ The second season is called ‘The Door.'" After Nolan made the reveal, Lisa Joy exclaimed, "I can't believe he just told you that!" Although some suspected that "The Maze" was referring to a literal maze, it was later revealed to be something else – a way for the Hosts to achieve true consciousness. Neither Jonathan Nolan nor Lisa Joy would elaborate on what "The Door" meant, but it does seem to be important to the show's second season, after all, a door always leads somewhere.

Although the clues were all there for us to decipher in Westworld's first season, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy didn't intend on audiences figuring them out quite so quickly, and it seems that they've got a "controversial" plan in store for how to interact with the Westworld community moving forward. Nolan teased the plan while speaking at the Westworld panel at SXSW.

Part of it stems from other shows. True Detective had a lot of fan theories that proved to be theories. There are lot of theories about Westworld’s first season that proved to be plot twists. I think for every fan theory, we actually had an episode that dealt with it. We’re figuring out how to sort of interact with that in the second season. A somewhat controversial plan that we’re working on; we’ll have an announcement about it in a couple weeks. It’s incredibly gratifying to see people put that much work — not just into deciphering the season, but the fan art and music. The creativity you see coming back at you when you’re making one of these things is extraordinary.

Westworld's second season will premiere on HBO on April 22, 2018.