Why Westworld is about to get even more complicated

Jeffrey Wright says he'd rather watch Westworld than Trumpworld.

Embraced as American cable giant HBO's most ambitious series since the success of Game of Thrones, season one of Westworld had many secrets to unfurl in its tale of a Western-themed amusement park where guests act out their fantasies with a cast of flawlessly lifelike robots.

As viewers feverishly (sometimes successfully) attempted to predict the multiple revelations, no character embodied the surprises more than park programmer Bernard (played by the peerless Jeffrey Wright), who we got to know as a human, then was eventually revealed to be a "host" (i.e, a robot).

The robots violently rebelled against their human masters at the end of season one and most people still think Bernard is one of the latter, putting him in a particularly compromising spot as the highly anticipated second season finally arrives.

"Bernard's in a rough place," Wright tells TimeOut during an interview in Los Angeles. "He's struggling with allegiance to the various sides of himself and the various sides of this chaos. He thought he had the life of a human - turns out that wasn't entirely the case - but he still has allegiances to these relationships he's formed in both sides of the park so he's got a lot to figure out."

Jeffrey Wright says season two of Westworld is even more complicated than season one.

Wright admits that the show's endlessly scrutinised secrets can be something of a weight to carry.

"My son asked me during the first season. He really wanted to know things. And I told him that Bernard was a host, and he said, 'I wish you hadn't told me that.' So this season I don't tell him anything."

The actor maintains the surprises aren't merely narrative gimmicks, however.

"The reveals and the layers serve a purpose. I don't think it's gratuitous. I think it's structured into the issues, the technology we're exploring, I think it serves the narrative so we don't want to undermine that."

Although it all came right in the end, season one of Westworld was an infamously troubled production, shutting down many times. So was season two any easier?

"Oh God, season two was much harder," laughs Wright. "The hardest thing about season one was just the logistics. Starting. Stopping. Starting again. Stopping again. That was difficult on all of us. Season two we pretty much shot continuously and the material is much more intense. It raises the stakes from season one. The rabbit holes have given birth to baby rabbit holes."

As Wright suggests, season two will greatly expand the show's thematic and geographical scope.

"One of the questions we're examining in season two is the 'Why' of the park. We know the 'Who', the 'What'. We know the 'Where'...ish. But the question that we'll start to answer is 'Why'. And that relates to the world outside of our show."

As this thread is explored, it becomes eerily evocative of the current debate around the power wielded by institutions such as Facebook.

"This season examines the intent and control behind the technology. The technology that we all enjoy. What are the implications of it and how is it being manipulated, not by governments, but more so by corporations? Is it a social imperative or is it a profit imperative? And of course, the profit imperative overrides everything else."

Like the best sci-fi, Westworld is reflective of the current ideological state of things, about which Wright is understandably wary, yet hopeful.

"There's always hopefulness. We're all still alive. There are always wonderful things that are happening in a society that is not completely at war. That does not take away from the fact that the leadership of the United States government and the office of the President of the United States has been diminished. And that the dialogue in our country has been dumbed down and is manipulated by the worst angels of our societal nature.

"It's absurd not to examine the damage that's been done and pay attention and to work to undo it. It's ridiculous. It's embarrassing. But I think at the same time we have to look within too. There are odd leaders in our world right now. And they don't just exist in a vacuum. There's something within these societies that brings them out."

It's a state of affairs from which shows like this can provide an escape.

"I'd rather watch Westworld than watch Trumpworld," says Wright.

LOWDOWN:
Who: Jeffrey Wright
What: Westworld
Where: Sky Soho
When: Season two premieres Monday at 1pm with repeat screenings at 8.30pm; also available via Neon