'Westworld' questions reality and hopes to evolve in official trailer for Season 4 of HBO's sci-fi hit

Cease all motor functions and check out the official trailer for Season 4 of HBO's Westworld. The hit sci-fi series, which has been off the air for just over two years, looks to be aiming for its most ambitious outing yet with plenty of existential questions about humanity and its supposed dominance over machines.

"I can’t wait for people to see what this season is all about," cast member Aaron Paul, who returns to play the role of Caleb, said during a chat with The Hollywood Reporter this past spring. "They always go so much bigger as the seasons go on. Yeah, they definitely put me through it. That is certain. But it was done in a beautiful way, and I loved doing it."

While it doesn't give up much in the way of plot specifics, the latest Season 4 footage does carry the promise of several alluring storylines, including one in which William — aka the dreaded Man in Black (Ed Harris) — teams up with Charlotte Hale/Dolores (Tessa Thompson) for a plan that will almost certainly result in the extinction of the human race. It's not hard to blame Charlotte/Dolores for hating our species after everything those rich customers did at the titular theme park.

Watch the trailer now:

Thandiwe Newton (Maeve), Jeffrey Wright (Bernard), Luke Hemsworth (Ashley Stubbs), Angela Sarafyan (Clementine), and even James Marsden (Teddy) are also back to play fan favorite characters. Evan Rachel Wood rounds out the cast, but not as Dolores Prime, who died at the end of Season 3.

This was confirmed to Deadline by Wood and co-creator, Lisa Joy. “She’s a normal woman living in a big city just trying to make it as a writer," Wood said of her new character,  Christina. "Nothing ever happens to her, really. I think that’s all I can say… I was told that Dolores was meeting her rather tragic end in Season 3, so I had some convos with [co-creator] Jonathan [Nolan] and Lisa at the time about what that meant. They said, ‘Yeah, you’ll be back this season and you’ll look a lot like Evan Rachel Wood,' but I’m not me."

Christina's roommate is played by Westworld newcomer, Ariana DeBose (West Side Story). Aurora Perrineau (Prodigal Son) and Daniel Wu (Reminiscence) are also joining the show. Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan serve as executive producers alongside Alison Schapker, Denise Thé, J.J. Abrams, Athena Wickham, Richard J. Lewis, and Ben Stephenson.

Westworld Season 4 premieres on HBO and HBO Max Sunday, June 26 at 9 p.m. ET.

Looking for more sci-fi TV? Check out shows like Resident Alien, Brave New World, Project Blue Book, Eureka, Heroes, Intergalactic, and more streaming now on Peacock. Looking ahead, SYFY has the new series The Ark in the works from original Stargate film producer Dean Devlin, as well as Stargate SG-1 producer Jonathan Glassner.