James Marsden Comments on “Disappointing” Cancellation of ‘Westworld’

In the past year, many shows and movies saw absolute carnage thanks to Warner Bros’ merger with Discovery. The new management brought new rules, and hence several fan-favorite features were pulled down no matter the stage of production (hello, Batgirl) or popularity. One among them was creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s science fiction series Westworld. The news took fans by surprise as a new season wasn’t greenlit after Season 4 came out — rather the series stood canceled. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, actor James Marsden called the cancelation a “disappointment.”

Marsden played a host called Teddy who was in love with Dolores; after a gruesome death in Season 2, he remained absent for the entire third season and finally was brought back in Season 4 to fans’ excitement. Upon his return, he seemed to know more about the world and Dolores herself, but the story never came to an end. “I’d be lying to you if I told you that the way we ended Westworld wasn’t a disappointment,” Marsden said. “I’m never going to speak without gratitude about any of my experiences, but it would have been nice to be able to complete the story we wanted to finish.”

Among the reasons that Westworld got canceled was it being an expensive show to make. The grand sets, A-list star cast, and seemingly declining popularity of the series all added up for WBD to shut it for good. Marsden tells that he “totally understand[s] it’s an expensive show and big shows have to have big audiences to merit the expense, I just wish it was about more than financial success.” Further adding that the series provided one of those “unique opportunities to be part of something where I also would be sitting at home ravenously waiting for the next episode as a fan.” Certainly, the world weaved by Nolan and Joy gripped the audience with its twists and turns as well as kept bringing back its characters in new avatars.

After the show was axed, it was also pulled from HBO Max, but Marsden is still hopeful about possibly finishing the series: “Who knows, maybe there’s some world where it can get completed somehow. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking, because I know we had plans to finish it the way we wanted to.” But Marsden isn’t the only one, as fans are still rallying to get a Season 5, though no updates on the state of the series are available.