Each new season of Westworld basically forces fans to start over from Square One in the theorizing department, since creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy like to keep everyone on their toes and guessing. With Season 3's premiere getting closer every day, anticipation is building for the chaos that Evan Rachel Wood's Dolores will cause in the real world now that she has escaped the parks. But is there a possibility that James Marsden's Teddy will be around to engage in that chaos with her? Maybe so, maybe so.
When viewers last saw Teddy, it was pretty clear that he was a goner, and for all intents and purposes, Westworld appeared to have officially taken Teddy off the playing field. Though everyone was predictably cryptic about it at the time, James Marsden set up future projects that implied he might be too busy to adhere to a full production schedule for Season 3. But now that the actor is being asked about his potential involvement in Season 3, I'm back to believing he'll be showing up somehow.
I mean, I'm not allowed to say anything. But I would say that just based on your hypothesis, if he's died 4,000 times then I would say that the odds are probably strong. Yeah. But it's a question I can't answer. And I think time will tell.
I wouldn't be surprised every single person who works on Westworld has to sign multi-year non-disclosure agreements with stiff penalties attached, regardless of what they do on the show. If nothing else, that would keep the show's plot and integrity safe from escaping the loose lips of actors who got killed off without any chance of returning. Sure, Teddy looks like an earnest and honest guy, but let's not forget when Dolores boosted all of his intelligence factors and turned him into a terse jerk.
But let's take a closer look at the rest of what James Marsden told ComicBook.com. The hypothesis in question concerned the open-ended way Season 2 ended, with Dolores sneaking those mysterious host cores into the real world, where she rebuilt Bernard, so to speak. Marsden brings up the fact that Teddy (along with plenty of other hosts) experienced horrific deaths a seemingly countless number of times, yet was always able to return to form.
Sure, Teddy's suicidal act wasn't the same as being killed off by a park guest, and the park was technically a war zone at the point when he did it, meaning there likely wouldn't be any human workers rushing to make sure he got his orb rebooted. Of course, if Dolores already swiped it form him, there wouldn't be much for anyone to reboot anyway.
I'm trying to fight the urge to start theorizing that Aaron Paul's new character is actually Teddy in a new body. As well as theorizing how that confusing post-credits sequence might factor into Teddy's potential future, or anyone's future.
Following the end of Season 2, James Marsden signed on for the Netflix dramedy Dead To Me with Christina Applegate, which debuted its acclaimed first season and is in production on the second. Marsden also signed up for a leading role on CBS All Access' adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand, which is presumably a bigger gig than Dead To Me, in terms of how busy he'll be. But did he manage to work in a window where he could film something for Westworld Season 3? I'm certainly more optimistic about it now than I was yesterday.
Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have expressed in the past that they have a definite endgame in mind for Westworld, although it's hard to tell whether or not anything has changed on that front over time. Fans can at least find out what the third chapter of this destructive tale will be when Westworld Season 3 premieres on HBO on Sunday, March 15. Beware those Ides of March, everyone.
