HBO’s Westworld managed to keep a tight lid on its main story (until roughly the second episode), but Season 2 has a great many questions worth investigating until 2018. We can consider at least one of those mysteries solved, as a Season 1 star confirms they’ll be back for Season 2, albeit in an unknown capacity.

You’re warned of full spoilers for Westworld from here on out, but it seems that old sci-fi storytelling adage holds true; unless you see an explicit death, count on that character making a surprise return. The same officially holds true of Luke Hemsworth’s Ashley Stubbs who told The Huffington Post (via Vanity Fair) of his return for Season 2:

Is Stubbs OK?

Physically? He’s well. He’s doing all right. Just taking a sabbatical. […]

What can we expect in Season 2?

It’s gotta be a step up, doesn’t it? So it’s gotta get more complex. If there’s any room for production values to get bigger—I don’t know how they’d do that—but I’m sure it will.

Hemsworth also acknowledged the possibility that his and Elsie (Shannon Woodward)’s mysterious disappearances might be linked:

What do you think about the theory that Elsie is alive and lured your character, Stubbs, out into the park to help her?

I’d love to see that. Yeah, I hope that’s what I’m going to do is rescue Elsie, and we get to run through the park and maybe wear some western gear. That’d be fun.

Elsewhere of Westworld Season 2, producers have kept the lion’s share of details under wraps, though the 2018 return is expected to answer practical questions about the park, potentially even a date for the show’s setting. Ed Harris will be back to play Season 2 on extreme mode (no guarantee for William), while both Talulah Riley and Louis Herthum have been upped to series regulars. We’ll also finally get answers on the mysterious “SW” park.

In the meantime, stay tuned for further details on Westworld Season 2, arriving in 2018.

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