HBO's 'Westworld' confirms June return, reveals unsettling trailer for long-awaited Season 4

After a two-year hiatus away from our television and/or computer screens, Westworld will finally return to HBO on Sunday, June 26 for its long-awaited fourth season. The premiere date was confirmed via the release of an initial teaser trailer.

While the footage — hauntingly set to Lou Reed's "Perfect Day," we might add — doesn't give up much in the way of plot, it does confirm the return of all the principal cast members: Evan Rachel Wood (Dolores), Thandiewe Newton (Maeve), Ed Harris (William/The Man in Black), Jeffrey Wright (Bernard), Tessa Thompson (Charlotte Hale), Luke Hemsworth (Stubbs), Angela Sarafyan (Clementine), and Aaron Paul (Caleb). Variety reports that West Side Story alum Ariana DeBose has been added to the ensemble in a mystery role.

The trailer also contains a number of curious visuals, including what looks to be a flashback to the gangster violence of the 1930s (perhaps this is another sci-fi theme park for customers who want to experience the Great Depression?) and an android with flies swarming out of her mouth. 

Check it out below:

HBO released the teaser under the title of "It doesn’t look like anything to me." Longtime fans of the show will recognize this as a callback to the first season, which utilized those seven words to indicate whether or not the park's titular androids were still subservient to their human creators.

"I can't tease anything, but I do know that in true Westworld fashion, it's gonna be much bigger than the previous season, so I'm excited about it," Aaron Paul, whose character was first introduced in the most recent season, told SYFY WIRE over the phone last year.

Based on the 1973 film written and directed by Michael Crichton, the series was adapted for television by producing partners (and real world husband-wife duo) Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. Both serve as executive producers alongside Denise Thé, J.J. Abrams, Athena Wickham, Richard J. Lewis, and Ben Stephenson.

A fourth outing received the green-light in late April of 2020 ahead of the Season 3 finale.

"From the western theme park to the technocratic metropolis of the near future, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed every twist and turn from the minds of master storytellers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy," Casey Bloys, President, HBO Programming, said at the time. "We can’t wait to see where their inspired vision takes us next.”

Westworld Season 4 premieres on HBO and HBO Max Sunday, June 26.

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.