‘Westworld’: James Marsden Returns For Season 4; Evan Rachel Wood On Playing A New Character — ATX

It’s been two years since Season 3 of HBO‘s Westworld concluded and fans have been anxiously awaiting new stories. Co-creator Lisa Joy made a special appearance at the ATX Festival on Saturday night alongside writer Alison Schapker and stars Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Luke Hemsworth, Angela Sarafyan, and Aurora Perrineau.

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Joy confirmed Wood’s character Dolores is dead as it was revealed in the Season 3 finale, and the actress will play someone new when the show premieres on June 26. Her name is Christina and she’s from a city that looks like New York. She lives there with her roommate played by Ariana DeBose who may or may not have a crush on Christina.

“Dolores is dead. But I really like Evan and she’s also kind of clinging so I had to bring her back. We write a whole new character for her,” Joy said.

Added Wood, “She’s a normal woman living in a big city just trying to make it as a writer. Nothing ever happens to her, really. I think that’s all I can say… I was told that Dolores was meeting her rather tragic end in Season 3, so I had some convos with [co-creator] Jonathan [Nolan] and Lisa at the time about what that meant. They said, ‘Yeah, you’ll be back this season and you’ll look a lot like Evan Rachel Wood but I’m not me.”

One thing that’s certain is that Christina will be dating and she will go on a date with a man who looks like James Marsden, who will return for Season 4. The Austin-based actor, who played Teddy in Seasons 1 and 2 of Westworld, surprised audiences mid-way through the panel.

“Sometimes you have to go away to come back,” Marsden said. “We learn to speak cryptically on this show. This has been 7 years of our show and yeah, it’s an amazing thing to be a part of and see where the story goes. From the beginning, I didn’t know where it was all gonna go but I’m glad to see it now.”

As far as where Wright’s Bernard will be when the series finally returns, the actor was equally mysterious with his response.

“It’s all a rabbit hole inside a rabbit hole and Bernard is going Alice again,” he shared. “At the end, I think for the audience and for me, as well as for him—which is like the meta side of our show— it’s a mystery of where he is and where he’s going. And if he did emerge, where would he be when he did that. Lots of unknowns and a lot of dust and mystery. That’s it. Pretty much my life.”

The audience at the historic Paramount Theater viewed an extended exclusive clip that showed power duo, Bernard and Stubbs at a diner where they have a run-in with Perrineau’s character, part of a mysterious group Bernard wants an introduction to.

“I got a scene to audition and I didn’t know what it was about. Every time I got a script, it was a surprise to see who I was. It’s definitely a surprise that’s very interesting,” Perrineau said.

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