Westworld creators offer to spoil series two, spectacularly troll fans

“If you guys agree, we're going to post a video that lays out the plot (and twists and turns) of season 2. Everything. The whole sordid thing. Up front. That way the members of the community here who want the season spoiled for them can watch ahead, and then protect the rest of the community, and help to distinguish between what's 'theory' and what's spoiler.”

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Obviously, such an offer was irresistible to the fans desperate to know what was next for Bernard, Dolores and the other hosts n’ humans battling it out in the titular cowboy theme park – so when their post reached the requisite 1000 upvotes, Nolan and Joy stood by their word and released the video.

"All right guys,” they said. “We left this in your hands. Some may feel this is a drastic step, but I, for one, love and trust this community. Here's the link."

So there it was. Every single Westworld season two secret, there for the taking. Clearly, this would be a grand new step in the journey of popular culture, the way we discuss it online and the importance we place on plot events over character, tone and overall effect. This was something truly special…

….or, as it turned out, a big joke. While the first minute and a half of the footage did see some new details about the first episode narrated by Bernard actor Jeffrey Wright, the footage quickly segued into a stripped-down piano version of Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up performed by series star Evan Rachel Wood, followed by 20 minutes of a dog sitting at a piano.

In other words, this whole thing was just a massive, expensively-produced Rickroll, and there were never any spoilers on offer at all. We’re sort of relieved – the internet won’t be QUITE such a minefield of Westworld spoilers after all – if embarrassed at how credulously we took the whole offer in the first place.

Nope, we’ll have to ruin the story for ourselves in the good, old-fashioned way – reading nerds arguing about theories on internet messageboards. Truly, the way all art should be consumed.

Westworld returns to Sky Atlantic and Now TV on Monday 23rd April