‘Westworld‘ Axed By HBO, Fans Wonder Why
The big moves at HBO continues as the new regime in charge have canceled Westworld. This is just the latest move by the new owners of Warner Bros., HBO’s parent company. Discovery purchased Warner and HBO and have begun making sweeping moves, many of which is frustrating fans.
Here is a look at the Westworld cancelation.
HBO cancels Westworld
Discovery CEO David Zaslav has made yet another unpopular move since his company acquired Warner Bros. He already made many people unhappy when he canceled the release of DC movie Batgirl – despite the fact the movie was already filmed. He also ensured no one would ever see it by making it a tax write-off for Discovery.
After this, he ordered several animated shows removed from HBO Max for no real reason other than to ensure the creators stopped getting residual payments for them. This angered many creators who realized there was no way that anyone could see their work now since Warner still owned the shows and could just keep them in the vault.
Now, HBO has canceled Westworld. This was the first move that actually made sense when looking at it logically. The show had a critically acclaimed first season and continued to push boundaries since then. However, every season since the first has had lower views and as the viewership totals dropped, its chances of continuing sank as well. While it had rabid fans, there were many who checked out in Season 4 and HBO canceled the underperforming, yet very expensive series. According to Statista, an average of only 350,000 viewers watched the fourth season.
It is also important to note that this isn’t just a David Zaslav thing. When HBO started to change direction in the middle of the 2000s, the network canceled the very popular series Deadwood. That show was still going strong when HBO axed it, so canceling Westworld isn’t that surprising. However, fans are still angry about it.
Fans lash out at HBO after cancelation
Fans took to Twitter to rip into HBO, and some of them had legitimate arguments.
One fan mentioned that there was only one season left to finish the story, and HBO ensured that wouldn’t happen. “HBO canceling Westworld after spending all that money and scoring all those stars with only one season to go is unhinged. NO SHOW IS SAFE!” they wrote.
Others posted memes asking for a fifth and final season.
westworld deserved a fifth and final season pic.twitter.com/I59bmjANSP
— alexia (@malydolfo) November 4, 2022
“RIP to one of the best sci-fi shows I’ve ever watched,” another wrote. “All those characters deserved a better ending.”
One thing that Westworld had going for it was a lot of strong women, something many fans will miss.
I'm gonna miss all the badass women of Westworld.
And we deserved to have a proper ending to this show. https://t.co/LtP44qED3j— Flav⎊ (@Darveyinbed) November 4, 2022
It’s important to remember that when HBO canceled Deadwood, it brought it back years later for a movie to wrap up the story. Whether Westworld can get this, especially with a new regime that doesn’t seem to care about the properties it is dropping, is another story.
Are you going to miss Westworld? Furthermore, are you mad that HBO canceled it, or was it time for it to go? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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