Yes, you read it right! The dystopian sci-fi series will not get a fifth season, but the main cast of the series will be paid for Season 5 regardless of the fact that it will not be produced.
The main cast reportedly had pay-or-play contracts for Season 5. The actors' options were exercised sometime last year before Season 4 premiered (production of that season had been halted due to the epidemic). According to the sources of Deadline, the cast may have also renegotiated their contracts at that time.
As per the reports of the Deadline, the move is not unusual. Networks sometimes pay to secure a cast before a renewal decision is made, mainly if the group features big names who would be hard to reassemble without contracts.
According to Deadline, Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Harris, and Aaron Paul make up the majority of the cast of Westworld, according to the HBO page for the programme. At the 2019 Comic-Con, the group represented the show.
The original cast members Wood, Newton, Wright, and Harris had their pay significantly increased after Season 2 to roughly $250,000 per episode in Season 3. Paul started out in Season 3.
The estimated total of the Season 5 cast's unpaid salary is between $10 million and $15 million. Westworld's third season budget was $100 million, or around $10 million for each episode, thus a fifth season would have cost HBO more than $80 million. This is not a tiny sum of money, but overall Westworld is not a cheap programme.
Sources of Deadline claim that the decision to terminate was based on the same factors Netflix considers when deciding whether to renew a show: viewership vs. expense. The popularity of Westworld has slowly decreased over the course of its current run. Westworld's creative reception improved from Season 3 to Season 4 (from 73% to 75% on Rotten Tomatoes), but viewers' attention spans have decreased due to fans' complaints about the show's complex backstory and difficult-to-follow plotlines.
The cancellation occurs the day after HBO parent Warner Bros. released a tough quarterly earnings report. Discovery. WBD CEO David Zaslav discussed plans to increase the company's savings objective to $3.5B during the call that followed, up $500M from the prior aim. The cancellation occurs the day after HBO parent Warner Bros. released a tough quarterly earnings report. Discovery. WBD CEO David Zaslav discussed plans to increase the company's savings objective to $3.5B during the call that followed, up $500M from the prior aim.
According to Deadline, the 1973 film written and directed by Michael Crichton is the basis for the dark odyssey Westworld, which explores the emergence of artificial consciousness and the issue of free will.
With Kilter Films and Bad Robot producing in collaboration with Warner Bros. Television, season four credits included Nolan and Joy as creators, EPs Abrams, Alison Schapker, Athena Wickham, Richard J. Lewis, Denise The, and Ben Stephenson, and Nolan and Joy as EPs.
( With inputs from ANI )
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