WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 3, Episode 2 of Westworld, "The Winter Line," which aired Sunday on HBO.
The first season of Westworld, while taking place almost entirely in the titular Western theme park, teased the existence of other parks out there. In fact, the company that runs Westworld, Delos, seemed to operate multiple other attractions as part of their immersive experiences. Fans have been curious about these other parks for a long time, and in the show's second season, Shogun World and The Raj were revealed. Now, in Westworld's latest episode, "The Winter Line," we learned of the existence of Park 4 and the destination it reserves for its guests: a medieval world that looks a lot like Westeros, aka the continent where the action of Game of Thrones took place.
That's right, Westworld staged a crossover with HBO's smash hit fantasy series Game of Thrones with a cameo appearance from showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, multiple props and costumes from the series and an actual (robot) dragon. Of course, this implies that Delos' fourth park is inspired by Game of Thrones.
But now that the idea of a Game of Thrones park has been introduced, it leads to the question: is there any chance the fantasy series' eighth and final season was all just a simulation?
In 2019, HBO aired Game of Thrones' Season 8, which was comprised of six episodes that served as the series' final installments. Unfortunately, after a slow and steady pace that had become a signature for the series, the final season moved things along incredibly rapidly. As a result, the elaborate character development that previously happened over an entire season now unfolded over a single episode, or rather, in mere minutes. Large distances were covered in just as little time, and convenient plot contrivances helped speed things along. Essentially, Game of Thrones didn't feel like Game of Thrones anymore. And it couldn't have happened at a worse time, given all the anticipation and excitement surrounding the series' swan song.
The changes to the show surprised fans immensely, and contributed to Season 8's poor reception by most of the series' large fanbase. Case in point, fans almost unanimously despised the series finale. In fact, some would go as far as saying that the final season of Game of Thrones never happened.
Well, what if their wish has actually come true?
Since it's been confirmed that a Westeros-like Medieval World is one of the parks at the heart of Westworld, fans can take small comfort in the idea that Season 8 of Game of Thrones was all an elaborate simulation that took place there. In Delos' parks, guests can live out their fantasies however they see fit. And since one of the main critiques of Season 8 was that it felt like bad fanfiction, perhaps what we saw unfold onscreen was simply a few park guests' attempt to deliver a swift conclusion to the series.
That means the series would remain canon up until Season 7. But fans can rest easy with the knowledge that Season 8 was a Westworld simulation, and that Game of Thrones' ending has yet to be told. And since perhaps no ending could ever live up to fans' expectations, that may be for the best.
Airing Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO, Westworld stars returning cast members Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Luke Hemsworth, Simon Quarterman and Rodrigo Santoro, joined by series newcomers Aaron Paul, Vincent Cassel, Lena Waithe, Scott Mescudi, Marshawn Lynch, John Gallagher Jr., Michael Ealy and Tommy Flanagan.