Westworld Cast and Creators Get Season 5 Pay, Despite Cancellation

Late Friday afternoon, information broke that HBO had pulled the plug on its sci-fi drama Westworld after 4 seasons. Before this, creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy had already deliberate to deliver the twisty and sometimes convoluted collection to a detailed with a fifth and ultimate season, however these plans have been dashed as Warner Bros. Discovery tries to chop prices wherever it could following its current merger.

Even so, paydays nonetheless await the creators and its high billed forged. Per Deadline, they’ll all nonetheless be paid for the fifth season, no matter the truth that it received’t ever come to fruition. The core forged—Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Harris, and Aaron Paul, however surprisingly not Tessa Thompson—had pay-or-play offers into their contracts for season 5 earlier than the present’s ultimate season aired again in June. In complete, they’re anticipated to be paid $10-15 million, which isn’t nothing for a present that already price lots to make. Season three was stated to have price about $100 million ($10 mil for 10 episodes), and had HBO gone forward with season 5, that will’ve been $80 million. (Seasons three and 4 had been eight-episode seasons, and 5 would’ve adopted swimsuit.)

And in line with The Hollywood Reporter, Nolan and Joy aren’t strolling away empty-handed, both. Both creators ended their cope with Warner Bros. TV earlier than the airing of season 4 to strike a nine-figure cope with Amazon. (Prime Video’s current sci-fi collection The Peripheral credit the duo as government producers, and so they’re likewise showrunners for the TV adaptation of Interplay and Bethesda’s Fallout franchise.) During negotiations with Amazon, Nolan and Joy efficiently included permission to stay showrunners on Westworld as much as a hypothetical season six, and so they’ll receives a commission as if the present truly bought that far. The quantity is undisclosed, however given the present’s status, one can fairly assume it will’ve been quite a bit.

While it’s good that the primary forged and creators don’t go house empty, it sucks that the pay solely applies to them and never the present’s crew, and even leftover supporting forged members who would’ve made the soar from season 4 to 5. Beyond that, with the knowledge given, possibly it simply makes extra sense to allow them to end the present on their phrases as a substitute of shedding all that cash in a dumber approach?

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