Photo : John P. Johnson ( HBO )

In addition to dominating the water-cooler conversation, Westworld will continue to follow in Game Of Thrones’ footsteps by beefing up the runtimes of several upcoming episodes. Showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy tell Entertainment Weekly that the season-two premiere, which airs Sunday, April 22, is “a little over 70 minutes.” But that won’t be the only time you’ll have to adjust your DVR’s recording schedule—the fourth episode, which Nolan calls “one of [his] favorites,” is also “longer than an hour.”




That doesn’t sound like anything that will require limiting fluid intake during viewing, though the extra 10 minutes here and there will undoubtedly yield more violent ends for violent delights. And at 70 or so minutes, those supersized episodes still fall a bit short of the Game Of Thrones season-seven finale, which clocked in at 79 minutes (clearly, someone wanted to make sure we got a good long look at Jon Snow’s ass). Then again, Nolan says the Westworld season-two closer is “just going to keep going and going—it’s a bit of an epic,” which, given that there are far more bare asses in this sci-fi series, could push it closer to feature length.

