Westworld Promotes Talulah Riley to Series Regular

In Westworld season 2, Angela will do more than greet (and otherwise service) guests, as HBO makes actress Talulah Riley a series regular.

The four months since Westworld wrapped its freshman season have been a slog. Granted, a lot of that has to do with politics and the general state of society at the moment. But it’s also because life without Westworld just isn’t as interesting. What is there to do when you’re not wondering which of your fellow “human beings” are secretly androids?

Season 2 is still a long ways off, so the current dearth of news about our favorite cowboys and robots drama is only to be expected. At this point, we’ll take anything we can get.

For instance: a cast member has been promoted from recurring to a series regular! Entertainment Weekly reports that Talulah Riley will see her role expanded in a big way next season.

In season 1, Riley played the small yet crucial part of Angela, a host who introduces new visitors to the titular theme park. Most notably, she gave an orientation to Jimmi Simpson’s William in the second episode, “Chestnut”, uttering the key line of dialogue, “If you can’t tell [I’m not real], does it matter?” With her mellifluous British accent and inscrutable gaze, Riley made exposition mesmerizing.

EW teases that Angela undergoes a role reversal next season. Rather than making guests feel welcome at Westworld, she will “prove to be one of the last faces many guests will ever see.” In the season 1 finale, the park’s android hosts, led by Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), turned against their human creators in a murderous onslaught. After that, we can assume that the show will look and feel very different.

What creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have up their sleeves is anyone’s guess. Sadly, we’ll be stuck in suspense for a while longer.

Westworld is scheduled to return sometime in 2018.

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