By most appearances, Westworld creators Jonathan and Lisa Joy Nolan are making all the right moves in order to ensure the second season of their hit sci-fi show won’t run up against any of the problems that plagued the first. But there’s an unexpected threat looming that maybe more of us should have seen coming.

On the plus side, Westworld is promoting two breakout side players from Season 1—Dolores’s “father,” played by Louis Herthum, and the park’s greeter-robot-turned-rabble-rouser, played by Talulah Riley—to series regulars, which proves the Nolans know acting gifts when they see them. And to avoid the storytelling uncertainty that led to production delays in the show’s twist-filled first season, the Nolans are in the process of writing all 10 scripts before going into production this summer. But there, exactly, is the rub. Jonathan Nolan said at a PaleyFest event last Saturday that his writers were in the midst of breaking Episode 3. Now, though, he’s staring down the barrel of a writers’ strike—which seems more likely than ever. If a strike does happen, will Westworld be delayed once more?

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter on the PaleyFest red carpet, Nolan admitted, “I don’t want a strike. No one wants a strike.” Even so, he implied he’d vote yes on the strike authorization ballots that the Writers Guild of America will send out next month: “A vote is a part of showing the willingness of the membership to do what it takes.”

One of the issues on the table as the W.G.A. renegotiates its terms with TV studios has to do with the increasing popularity of shorter, 10-episode seasons like those of Westworld. When writers are hired into exclusive deals on any given show, if that series lasts 10 episodes rather than 22 and the writer isn’t allowed to find work elsewhere, their income is essentially cut in half. “We’re still paid per episode, and now it’s 10 episodes with exclusivity,” said Nolan, who moved to the HBO series after working for five years on the (mostly) 22-episode-long network drama Person of Interest. “If the show only takes a few months [to do], you‘re still held to the show. That’s a 60 percent reduction in income.”

The 2007–2008 writers’ strike took a massive toll on a TV industry that didn’t have nearly the number of shows in production as we do now, in the era of peak TV. At least 13 shows were canceled that season—many due to the financial strain of the strike. Several big shows, including 24, Battlestar Galactica, Entourage, and Damages, were pushed off the schedule entirely and held until the following season. So there’s no telling what could happen to Westworld if a strike does occur and the Nolans don’t finish the next seven episodes before it formally begins in May. “We’re at a sea change moment,” Nolan said firmly. “And as with the last negotiation, which resulted in a strike—about anticipating the internet and Netflix and everything else—it’s important all parties come to the table and find a solution that works for everyone.” All this means that Westworld Season 2, which wasn’t slated to debut until over a year after the 2016 finale anyway, may be pushed back even further. Just like any good uprising (robot or otherwise), the timing may not be convenient to everyone involved.