'Westworld's Japanese-Inspired Park Is Confirmed As 'Shogunworld'

HBO's Westworld ended its first season after giving us a brief glimpse of hosts that appeared to be dressed as ancient Japanese warriors, and a logo on the wall that simply said "SW." Fans have been trying to figure out whether those initial stood for Samurai World, Shogun World, or Sensei World for months, and now the true name has finally been confirmed: it's Shogunworld. One word. At least, that's how it appeared in the season one finale script.

Entertainment Weekly explains that though Samurai World was the most common guess among fans, the script for "The Bicameral Mind," Westworld's season one finale, referred to the area as "SHOGUNWORLD". The magazine interprets that to mean it's more properly written as "ShogunWorld," but I feel like if the second "w" in Westworld isn't capitalized, why should the "w" in ShogunWorld be treated any differently. So I'm betting it's actually Shogunworld.

The term "shogun" refers to the military leaders of feudal Japan, which aligns with the aesthetic of the characters we saw in the season one finale. It's unknown exactly how much of the new park we'll see in Westworld season 2, but EW points out that the show's social media campaign recently teased this image:

That logo in the bottom right is the same one displayed on the wall near the warriors in the finale, so this could be our first glimpse inside the Shogunworld park. I'm hoping it is, because that implies that season two of Westworld is going to be even more ambitious in scope than the first. That image looks so wildly different from the locations we saw in the first season; I wonder if that biodiversity hurts the theory that Westworld is set on a different planet.

Showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have spoken a bit about how we'll see new parks incorporated in the upcoming seasons of the show, with Nolan referring to Westworld as the "first park" and revealing there are six others under the Delos Incorporated umbrella. In Michael Crichton's 1973 Westworld movie, there were three worlds: Roman World, Medieval World, and Westworld.

Regardless of how much the creators pull back the curtain on the other worlds, Westworld will remain "the center of our narrative," according to Nolan.

"That's the title of the show and that's what we're doing, so that will remain the center and heart of what we're doing. But we're going to see the hosts start to realize and almost be offended by this notion: 'Wait, we're not the only ones here? There's more?'"

Westworld returns to HBO on April 22, 2018.