Westworld Season 4’s first teaser might have hinted at a new theme park coming to the HBO series – and it would add a new dimension to the show.
HBO recently released its first trailer for Westworld Season 4, which offered some looks at returning characters, the familiar dystopian cities and a few glimpses of the original theme park. The trailer also seemed to show off a new theme park — one that is set around the golden age of mobsters. It’s still unknown how much of the new season is expected to take place in the real world vs. in theme parks, but a mobster park would be a fascinating new experience.
Each season the show has changed its setting and presented the viewers with new storylines and complicated moral questions. Westworld originally centered around a corporation that created lifelike androids used to populate theme parks. These theme parks allow the guest to do whatever they want with zero consequences — until the androids begin to remember and assert their independence. The theme parks in Westworld have traditionally focused on different eras, and the 1930s haven’t been explored yet.
Season 1 featured a theme park based on the Wild West, then Season 2 introduced one modeled after feudal Japan. The 1930s have been highly romanticized in various films and TV shows, so it makes sense that there would be a Season 4 theme park based around the exploits of the mob. The era lends itself perfectly to a theme park setup: the customers can choose whether to experience the mobster life or try to enforce law and order.
The Westworld Season 4 trailer includes a frame in which a man sticks a tommy gun out his car window. Drive-by shootings are a common trope for this era in film and television, so that would fit right into a mobster-style theme park. Much like the Wild West, such a park would allow visitors to experience a point in time that audiences (within the show and watching at home) have fallen in love with. It would also be perfect for Westworld‘s dark and twisty storytelling.
Seeing characters like Jeffrey Wright’s struggling hero Bernard Lowe or Thandiwe Newton’s Maeve Millay enter the mafia world of the 1930s would offer a satisfying escape from the grim future that the rest of the series focuses on. With each new park, Westworld also taps into nostalgia for different film and TV genres. The cast could tell some interesting stories in a mobster park that contrast the harsh realities of their lives outside of it.
Westworld is another in the long line of successes for HBO. Each season allows the viewers to dive deeper into the moral ambiguity of the series and uncover a new layer. Season 4 will introduce award-winning actress Ariana DeBose to the amazing cast, and while Season 1 is the best, the upcoming season could be just as entertaining. Creating a mobster theme park would give viewers one more new element to look forward to.
Westworld Season 4 premieres June 26 on HBO.
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