Jonathan Nolan's 36-Episode Dystopian Masterpiece Is Coming True In 2026

Published Oct 23, 2026, 2:31 PM EDT Mary Kassel is a Senior Writer & Critic who joined the Screen Rant team in 2023. After graduating from Emerson College with a degree in Media Arts Production, Kassel started at Screen Rant with a focus on the critical analysis side of movies and television while continuing to work on set in film production. At Screen Rant, Kassel primarily writes for the Classic TV section, mining their encyclopedic knowledge of television history for content. However, they also contribute to the Books team and review both film and television as a critic. It's equally terrifying and thrilling when a dystopian plot from a science fiction TV show comes true in real life. While it's rare that events in movies, books, and TV series will unfold exactly as they're written, it's not uncommon for sci-fi authors and creators to predict events that are disturbingly close to reality. With exciting upcoming cyberpunk TV shows on the verge of exploring new versions of the future, it's the perfect time to look back at recent series that have only become more relevant. Discussions surrounding the use of new technologies and how catastrophic they might be are on everyone's minds today, whether they're fans of sci-fi or not. It seems the sci-fi TV shows based on books and movies of the past are becoming less far-fetched every year. Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy came together to create one of the best and most chilling dystopian sci-fi series in 2016. HBO's Westworld took the premise of the 1973 movie, written and directed by Michael Crichton, and transformed it into a compelling examination of the relationship between humanity and the technology we create. Though the show was abruptly canceled, it's difficult not to see the parallels between the series finale and real life. Jonathan Nolan wants a Westworld ending that would do justice to the complex story, diving into the ways AI has changed since the series went off the air. Image via MovieStillsDB Though there are many relevant storylines in Westworld, it's the development of artificial intelligence and the decline of humanity's power over its own fate that feels the most urgent today. Westworld is set against the background of an expensive, exclusive open-world theme park that allows its human guests to interact with Hosts, highly realistic robots, in an environment designed to be an immersive experience of the Old West. Of course, it doesn't take long for things to go south for the amusement park, which quickly becomes more sinister as the Hosts gain sentience and rebel against the awful things the humans do to them. The question of what makes a being sentient, and who gets to have agency, is at the heart of Westworld's story. As AI grows more powerful in real life, Westworld begins to feel less like speculative fiction and more like a prophecy. How the Hosts and their sentience are framed by the series changes as the seasons progress. Westworld's final season was not the reason the show was canceled, as the series had been struggling prior to its release. In fact, Westworld season 4 was one of the better installments of the story, and could've led to an even more compelling fifth and final season. Westworld's Unplanned Finale Paints A Bleak Picture Of Humanity's Future Image via MovieStillsDB Westworld's cancelation is still a tragedy. Not only because the series deserved to complete its story arc, but because the inadvertent end to the series doesn't hold a lot of hope for a world that balances humanity and artificial intelligence. In the series finale, season 2, episode 8, "Que Será, Será," the world is heavily implied to have ended, with only a few people left living as best they can until they die out as well. It's a pretty bleak, depressing conclusion that leans into one of Westworld's biggest themes: that humanity's own actions are what will ultimately destroy it. While this seems like a conclusive ending to the series, Westworld season 5 was planned until HBO canceled the show. It's impossible to know what exactly was in store for the hosts who had been uploaded to the Sublime and the collection of humans grasping at life on Earth, but it's nice to think that it would've been a little more positive than the season 4 finale. It's only been four years since Westworld season 4 aired, but even in that time, the discussion surrounding AI has become more urgent. Sci-fi has always been a reflection of our biggest fears and dreams surrounding the future of technology, with dystopian science fiction often leaning into the darker, nihilistic side of the genre. Westworld was never shy about its commentary on humanity's missteps, but hopefully, the series will remain fictional in the years to come. Release Date 2016 - 2022-00-00 Network HBO Showrunner Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy Westworld is a television series set in a futuristic Wild West-themed amusement park where advanced android hosts cater to human guests' desires. The series explores the themes of artificial consciousness and human morality as the lines between reality and artificiality begin to blur.