Westworld season 2: new stills and plot details revealed, plus air date confirmed

This article contains spoilers for Westworld; read a spoiler-free review of season one here

Sci-fi drama Westworld returns to HBO this year, and team behind the robots-meet-gunslingers hit have already spilt the beans about what to expect from season two.

Ed Harris, who plays the show's villain The Man in Black, has hinted that the character has a new mission for season two, but "gets a bit of damage done to him" along the way.

Showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have also shed light on a new threat – the "drone host", a creepy unfinished-looking robot seen in new promotional images for the second series.

“The drone hosts relate to the corporation’s secret project which is hidden in plain sight in this park,” Nolan told Entertainment Weekly. “As we talked about in the pilot, the park is one thing for the guests, and it’s another thing for its shareholders and management — something completely different.

"We’ve used the Google analogy — for consumers, it’s for search and email, yet for the company, it’s for advertising," Nolan continued. "As Bernard is making his way through the wreckage of the fallout from the first season, he’s discovering things about the park that even he doesn’t know and coming upon creatures like the drone host.” 

When is Westworld back on TV?

Season two will premiere on April 22, airing simultaneously on HBO in the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK (although for UK viewers this will be in the middle of the night).

British audiences who would prefer to get some beauty sleep catch the first episode a day later, when it is repeated on Sky Atlantic on the evening of April 23.

You can also stream it on-demand with the  NOW TV  Entertainment Pass   from April 23rd. That normally costs ￡7.99 per month, but new customers can get a  two week free trial . If you have time you can also catch up on season one Westworld on NOW TV before the new episodes begin.

What does the trailer reveal about season two?

HBO released a full-length trailer for the second season during this year's Super Bowl, and it's a spine-tingling glimpse at what will come, building on the robot uprising which began in the season one finale. 

"This world is a lie," says disillusioned 'droid Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), unhappy to have learnt she is, in fact, a robot living in a theme-park. "This world deserves to die – because this is your world... We can burn it to the ground, and from the ashes build a new world."

It seems the rebellion has even spread to the park's non-human "hosts"; a group of robotic buffalo are seen escaping from a lab in a hail of bullets, while robo-brothel madam Maeve (Thandie Newton) watches the mayhem with a wry smile.

Which characters will be returning?

Unsurprisingly, our heroine Dolores is back, but with a "brand new look" – as Entertainment Weekly put it, unveiling a new behind-the-scenes photo of the character in modern garb (as opposed to her usual Wild West get-up). Could she be going undercover, disguised to blend in with the futuristic world beyond the park? Only time will tell.

What's more of a shock is the news that Chris Hemsworth's gung-ho security guard Stubbs, left for dead after being attacked by the robotic hosts, is in fact alive and kicking. Smart programmer Elsie Hughes (Shannon Woodward), who disappeared without a trace in season one, is also set to return.

There is no word yet to suggest that Sir Anthony Hopkins will reprise his role as the park's co-founder, mad scientist Robert Ford, though this is hardly surprising; Ford was killed before our eyes in the season one finale. We will, however, see another actor play his younger self in flashbacks.

Jeffrey Wright is back as head programmer (and robot sleeper agent) Bernard, alongside Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson), CEO of Delos – the shadowy tech company behind the theme-park. But both Hale and her creative director Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman) now have a violent uprising on their hands.

Meanwhile, the showrunners have hinted that Peter Abernathy (Louis Herthum) – who was previously only a minor character, as Dolores's father – will become "a major asset" in the new series.

You can catch up on Season 1 of Westworld and watch the new season from April 23 with a two week free trial of the NOW TV Entertainment Pass.