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Past meets future in teaser trailer for HBO’s Westworld

About a month ago, HBO released a group of images from Westworld, a sci-fi series centered around a Wild West theme park in which automatons carry out whatever wild/twisted fantasies visitors can conjure up.

Any mention of a new HBO series is enough to pique the curiosity of TV fans everywhere but these images had everyone awaiting the next logical step: a trailer.

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On Sunday, the network released a teaser spot for the show (embedded above) and it looks very intriguing. Of course, there are the inevitable shots of the rugged beauty of the American West, an endless frontier, much of which is still empty today — but what stamps this as unique is its melding of the future and the past.

The trailer features images of a seemingly sinister sort of modern technology interspersed with cowboys, saloons, shotguns and everything else that’s become synonymous with the wild, Wild West.

As the eerie music plays and images flash by, The Man in Black (Ed Harris) is heard questioning Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood). The transcript of their conversation is below and it appears that all is not well in Westworld.

“Do you know where you are?”

“I’m in a dream.”

“That’s right, Dolores. Do you want to wake up from this dream?”

“Yes. I’m terrified”

“Then answer my question correctly. Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?”

That should come as no surprise after Executive Producer Jonathan Nolan said of Westworld, It’s a place where you can be whoever you want to be and there are no consequences — no rules, no limitations” adding that his team’s aim was to create “the most ambitious, subversive, f—ed-up television series.”

The show is set to debut some time in 2016 and is adapted from the 1973 Michael Crichton film of the same name.

Adam Poltrack
Adam is an A/V News Writer for Digital Trends, and is responsible for bringing you the latest advances in A/V…
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