Why won’t we be seeing Anthony Hopkins on Westworld this year? Very dead. Visibly rotting. Big ol’ hole in his face, filled with maggots and everything. OK that’s it for now! End of article! Catch you later. Actually, we should probably explore the implications of what Dr. Robert Ford’s death means. First it means that we won’t be treated to seeing the venerable Anthony Hopkins act every week. Hopkins did a wonderful job portraying such an inscrutable character but it sounds like the experience of operating within Westworld’s mystery-centric universe was a new challenge for him. It was entirely guessable that a film actor of Hopkins caliber, doing his first TV work might not be around for season two. Creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy confirmed as much in another interview with EWprior to the season two premiere. Still it’s a big deal within the universe of the show for a character to not be a robot/host. Perhaps that’s why the show depicted Ford and the other execs bodies rotting in the sun. It drives home the ugly finality of human death vs. artificial death. It also ensures that Hopkins will not have to ever endure questions like “is your character really dead?” and “was Robert Ford a host?” There is still the remote chance that another Robert host pops up one day or a younger version of him appears in a flashback. But the present-day version of him as depicted by Anthony Hopkins is well and truly gone.
