Westworld
“Westworld” showrunner Jonathan Nolan said Season 2 will be “a journey outward” for the characters, so they named it “The Door.” HBO

The first season of HBO’s sci-fi series “Westworld” has been named “The Maze,” and showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have just revealed that they would name the second season, “The Door.”

Nolan told Entertainment Weekly that “The Door” is symbolic to what the characters are going to be facing next season. “If the first season was a journey inward, this is a journey outward,” Nolan explained. “This is a search for what is else is beyond the park, and what else is in the park. Are there more parks? How big is the park? What’s beyond the park? We think of our seasons as discrete components in the series, to the point where we’ve named our seasons. The first season was called ‘The Maze.’ The second season is called ‘The Door.’”

His wife, Joy, wasn’t expecting for Nolan to make that revelation, and she chided him for sharing that secret.

Maybe “The Door” is referring to the other parks owned by Delos Inc. Nolan and Joy have already revealed earlier that several parks will be introduced next season, including a Japanese themed one. According to The Hollywood Reporter, that new park will be called “Shogun World,” although there are still some debate going on about the word spacing. Both “Shogunworld” and “ShogunWorld” are being pitched, but nothing has been decided yet.

Nolan earlier said they decided to go with a Japanese theme park because it is a good complement to the cowboys and guns theme. “The reason we went with the shogun, Imperial Japanese motif for that world is in large part because of the beautiful relationship you had between the golden age Westerns and the golden age samurai films,” said Nolan.

“As soon as Akira Kurosawa would make a film, it would get remade with cowboys. The idea that those stories worked in two very distinct genres and languages, and the relationship between those genres, to me was irresistible as an homage to how Kurosawa was responsible for some of the greatest Westerns of all time,” he added.

“Westworld” Season 2 premieres on April 22 on HBO.

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