TGIF Feature: Bad-ass samurai will debut on HBO's 'Westworld'

Westworld's first season gave us a glimpse of Shogun World with samurai led by Hiroyuki Sanada (front).

I THOUGHT IT ODD that Westworld, the television show based on Michael Crichton's novel set in the old American West, was hiring a number of Asian/American actors. Now I know why.
In the sci-fi series' second season, a new world is being introduced to the theme park to end all theme parks where customers can live out their fantasies -- Shogun World.

The park’s existence was first teased in the drama’s debut season finale 16 months ago. When I saw a glimpse of the new playground I got super excited because samurai movies had a heavy influence in my growing up. Until recently, however, nobody even knew what this land filled with lethal katana-swinging androids was even called. Fans began calling it Samurai World.

The new world, populated by humanlike robots interacting with the guests, is set in feudal Japan in Edo (later to be named Tokyo), a world broken into warring clans, the warrior class of samurai were employed by the clans or the Shogun, who tried to keep some semlance of order between the opposing clans.

“This is a world that’s a composite — just as Westworld is a composite with the early-19th-century open range of Red River and the immediate post-Civil War era of The Searchers, but it also has trains,” writers-producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy divulged to EW of Shogun World. “We felt free to have a composite with Shogun World and pick and choose. This is basically the Edo period, but with artifacts from across 300 years.”

Nolan also explained to EW how he was drawn to the parallels between spaghetti westerns and the samurai films they were patterned after; the classic example being the western  Magnificient Seven, which was patterned after Seven Samurai, perhaps the best-known of  samurai films of director Akira Kurosawa.

"It's wonderful to work with actors we haven't worked with before," Joy has said about the existence of this new world. "This allows us a lot of access to Asian actors and the Asian community, which is very important to me as part Asian myself."

As excited as Nolan is about the debut of Shogun World, he cautions fans that the focus of Westworld is still, well, Westworld. Season 2's story arc will take viewers to Shogun World for only an episode or two.

Rinku Kikuchi in Westworld's second season.

Nolan and Joy have managed to keep he storyline and how Shogun World gets incorporated into Westworld has been kept under lock and key.

The new cast members and their roles remain shrouded in mystery:

• Hiroyuki Sanada (Lost, The Last Samurai) will play Miyamoto Musashi, the legendary swordsman of Japan; 
• Oscar-nominated actress Rinko Kikuchi, who earned an Oscar nomination for her role in Babel, and won plaudits for her Pacific Rim heroine, will play Akane; 
• Tao Okamoto (Man In the High Castle, Hannibal) will play Hanaryo; 
• Kiki Sukezane, of Heroes Reborn, will play Sakura; and
• A half-dozen more Asian/American actors have been cast in minor roles.

Can't wait!

Westworld, Season 2, premieres April 22, 9 p.m. on HBO.

YOUTUBE

Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, fans of samurai films, get excited when talking about the new season.

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