Westworld Season 2: The Disturbing Truth Behind That Super Bowl Promo

At long last thirsty Westworld fans have a significant amount of new footage to chew over before the surprise 2016 hit returns to puzzle and entertain on April 22 this year. HBO released a full trailer during the Super Bowl and then an even longer ad online shortly thereafter. But like most things in Westworld, there’s some sleight of hand at play here. According to The Hollywood Reporter, some of the footage seen here was shot specifically for the Super Bowl ad and will not appear in Season 2 at all. Knowing how clever the Westworld fans were in pulling out tiny details to solve the Season 1 mystery back in 2016, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ll see more deceptive footage from HBO as the show ramps up for its second season.

One mystery of Season 2 may be solved, however. Fans have wondered which new modern songs we might here get the Westworld player piano treatment. This trailer features Kanye West’s “Runaway” plunked out on the piano and sources tell me that Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box,” among others, will also appear on the Season 2 soundtrack.

Musical teases aside, once you know some of the footage isn’t from the show itself, it’s easy to figure out what those scenes might be. We’re going to go ahead and guess everything involving mechanical bulls turning on their human overlords is metaphorical made-for-Super-Bowl magic to represent the way the androids of Season 1 turned on their masters. You can tell because, as you may recall last season, the offices of Delos Incorporated were demolished by Maeve (Thandie Newton) and her crew. Not pristine but for a few rampaging bulls, as we see here in the trailer.

But there are a few moments that probably give us a hint of what to expect in Season 2. First of all we see what looks like the return of Louis Herthum who played a glitching version of Dolores’s father Peter Abernathy.

Abernathy’s fate was left a bit up in the air last season, but rest assured that fan-favorite Herthum will be back for another round of robotic mayhem. We also see a more accurate depiction of Season 2 Maeve. No, she’s not striding through a sea of bulls in a magnificent poncho. She’s somewhere ashy (or snowy) reunited with what looks like both Rodrigo Santoro’s Hector Escaton and (squint) Leonardo Nam’s Felix Lutz.

Ben Barnes’ Logan (last seen riding precariously off into the sunset) is back and with Evan Rachel Wood’s Dolores in a modern setting that can somehow freeze much like the dusty streets of Westworld did in Season 1. Logan looks surprised, Dolores less so.

Let’s take a closer look, shall we, at Dolores seen for the first time in modern dress.

Finally we see the return of both Angela Sarafyan’s Clementine (though in that staged Delos footage). . .

. . .and what looks like a creepy new brand of faceless android sneaking up behind Jeffrey Wright’s Arnold.

I, for one, welcome my robotic overlords when they return to HBO on April 22.

Get Vanity Fair’s HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Joanna RobinsonJoanna Robinson is a Hollywood writer covering TV and film for VanityFair.com.