When HBO halted production on their highly-anticipated Westworld in January, the network said it was to give creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy more time to work on the scripts for this season, but now it seems that was only partially true. With the premiere getting closer and closer, series star James Marsden reveals the delay really happened so the creators can actually map out the entire series. Here's what the actor had to say below.

"It wasn't about getting the first 10 [episodes] done, it was about mapping out what the next 5 or 6 years are going to be. We wanted everything in line so that when the very last episode airs and we have our show finale, five or seven years down the line, we knew how it was going to end the first season - that's the way Jonah and [executive producer J.J. Abrams] operate. They're making sure all the ducks are in the row. And it's a testament to Jonah and Lisa and HBO that we got them right, especially the last three scripts. They could have rushed them and get spread too thin. They got them right, and when they were right, we went and shot them. The greatest work never comes easy and, in my opinion, that's what we were dealing with. This show is very ambitious and grand in scale and in themes and very expensive with a giant cast. And bigger than all of that is what this show wants to say."

The report from January revealed that HBO was still planning a 2016 premiere for the show, which was first given a pilot production commitment by HBO back in August 2013. The network debuted the first trailer in May, before announcing last month that the series will premiere on October 8. The series is based on Michael Crichton's book about a futuristic amusement park where all of your wildest dreams can come true. Jonathan Nolan, who co-wrote The Dark Knight and numerous other movies with his brother Christohper Nolan, revealed to Entertainment Weekly that they want to make each season distinct.

"We didn't want to have a story that repeated itself [each year]. We didn't want the Fantasy Island version of this [where new guests arrive at the park every season]. We wanted a big story. We wanted the story of the origin of a new species and how that would play out in its complexity."

We also have four new photos from Westworld, following the extended trailer that debuted a few weeks ago. The photos give us a new look at Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Robert Ford, who runs this high-tech amusement park, Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores, a naive "prairie girl host," Ed Harris as the Man in Black, a frequent human guest who appears to have nefarious plans afoot, and James Marsden as Teddy Flood, who will be at the heart of the show's twists and turns. Take a look at the new photos below.

Westworld Photo 1
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