'Westworld' Season 4 Adds Star of Just-Canceled FOX Show to Cast

Westworld Season 4 has added Prodigal Son actress Aurora Perrineau to its cast, according to a report by Deadline. Sources close to the production told reporters that Perrineau is taking on "a key recurring role" in the sci-fi series. So far, HBO has declined to comment on the news.

Perrineau is best known her roles in Jem and the Holograms and Prodigal Son. The 26-year-old actress also recently appeared in the 2019 film Virginia Minnesota. It is not clear what her role will be in Westworld, but insiders said she will appear in at least five episodes of the HBO series, which came in 10-episode-long seasons in its first two years and an 8-episode season last year. Of course, knowing Westworld's twists and turns, we may not even fully understand Perrineau's role until weeks after she first shows up in the series.

Westworld is a modern take on a 1973 made-for-TV movie by the same name — which itself was based on a novel by Michael Crichton. It is set in a cyberpunk-style future in 2058 where artificial intelligence has been perfected by contained in amusement parks where humans can act out their fantasies with android "hosts." In its three seasons so far, the show has blurred the lines between human life and artificial life, forcing viewers to reconsider who they're rooting for.

Westworld stars Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright and Thandiwe Newton in its ensemble cast. Season 2 added Tessa Thompson to the main cast, while Season 3 added Aaron Paul and Vincent Cassell. Some of the biggest stars in the show have been killed off and dismissed, calling to mind comparisons to Game of Thrones and other prestige TV series which "subvert audience expectations."

Westworld Season 3 aired from March to May of 2020, and HBO renewed it for a fourth season in April of that year. However, Season 3 got the worst reviews of the series so far — a 73 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes compared to an 87 percent in Season 1 and an 82 percent in Season 2. In general, critics complained that the show became harder to follow after it left the bounds of the amusement park and began grappling with high-concept sci-fi worldbuilding and philosophical questions about AI.

Of course, for fans of sci-fi in this subgenre, it only made the show more appealing, and enthusiasm in that sphere appears to have risen, not dwindled. So far, there is no word on when Westworld Season 4 will be released or even what stage of production it is currently in. The first three seasons are streaming now on HBO Max.