The cast of Westworld will be paid for the fifth season, despite the fact it won’t ever actually exist after the show was suddenly cancelled by HBO.
The show is a dystopian sci-fi western series based on the 1973 of the same name and its 1976 sequel Futureworld, which first premiered back in October 2016.
After season four wrapped back in August, co-creator Jonathan Nolan revealed at New York Comic Con that he was hoping for a fifth and final season, but stressed how he was still in talks with HBO.
The network then came out to confirm it was pulling the plug on the show, which has starred the likes of Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Thandie Newton, Tessa Thompson, Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Luke Hemsworth and Aaron Paul over the years.
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“Over the past four seasons, Lisa and Jonah have taken viewers on a mind-bending odyssey, raising the bar at every step,” a statement from HBO said.
“We are tremendously grateful to them, along with their immensely talented cast, producers and crew, and all of our partners at Kilter Films, Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television. It’s been a thrill to join them on this journey.”
The team at Kilter Films, the production company behind Westworld, also said in a statement of their own that making the show had been one of the ‘highlights’ of their careers.
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“We are deeply grateful to our extraordinary cast and crew for creating these indelible characters and brilliant worlds,” they continued.
“We’ve been privileged to tell these stories about the future of consciousness – both human and beyond – in the brief window of time before our AI overlords forbid us from doing so.”
But among all the doom and gloom of cancellation comes something of a ‘silver lining’, with Deadline reporting that the main cast will be paid for the final season that never was.
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Reporter Nellie Andreeva explained: “It was bad news for anyone associated with the show, led by creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, who had been hoping and advocating for another chapter, but for the main cast, there was some silver lining.
"I hear they will be paid for Season 5 regardless of the fact that it will not be produced.”
Citing sources, Andreeva said the core cast had ‘pay-or-play deals’ for season five, adding: “I hear the actors’ options came up sometime last year, before Season 4 had aired (its production had been delayed because of the pandemic), and they were exercised.
"I hear the cast also might have renegotiated their deals at that time.”
Andreeva points out that this move is ‘not unusual’, saying many networks pay to secure actors before a renewal decision has been reached.
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Deadline's Co-Editor-in-Chief also noted how the salaries the cast is owed for season five are believed to ‘total in the $10m-$15m range’, saying: “It is not a small chunk of change, but Westworld is not a cheap show overall, with its third-season budget pegged at $100m, or about $10m an episode, so proceeding with a fifth season would’ve cost HBO north of $80m.”
Topics: Film and TV, Entertainment