Fresh from San Diego Comic Con, HBO have dropped a trailer (watch here) for next year’s third season of their hit show Westworld – and it doesn’t disappoint.

The trailer opens with a dialogue from Dolores, as ever questioning the nature of machines, and recognising humans as her primary enemy. The speech is accompanied by shots of what we can assume is Delos HQ, which reaffirms that the real world out of the parks will be playing a huge part in the upcoming season. The futuristic landscape has an incredible design, so hats off to the team for that. We also see Tessa Thomson’s Charlotte, who as we know is actually a host accomplice to Dolores now, and she seems to be using her high status at Delos to put Dolores’ schemes in motion, which involve more stored minds to presumably upload into new host bodies.

We move on to see Dolores cradled by Aaron Paul’s new character – Caleb – who’s pitched as an everyman LA construction worker. It seems he’s being introduced as a way of showing Dolores another side of humanity, and that we aren’t all rich arseholes with the disposable income spare to visit the luxury Delos Parks. Anyway, the shot suggests this might be one of the secondary timelines the show explores, possibly coming after Dolores’ scheme with Charlotte goes downhill, and she ends up at square one, needing Caleb’s help to get back on her feet.

The ever mysterious Bernard is back with a new look, and gives a voiceover too, as he contemplates his purpose and reveals his plan to find help to defeat Dolores. From this shot it seems that he may be laying low, or hiding out, to avoid suspicion, but we also seem him repairing a damaged arm, suggesting he won’t be long before running into some trouble.

And as the sweet sound of Vera Lynn’s “We’ll Meet Again” kicks in, the help Bernard seems to be looking for is everyone’s favourite fierce female – Maeve. Straight away you’ll notice we’re going to be exploring a new park this season, much like last season’s Shogun World plot, however this time our Delos Destination seems to be either a World War World, or even an alternate history “Reichworld”, as many predicted following the end of Season 2. Maeve seems to have taken control of the new park with her host controlling superpowers, continuing on her path of self discovery.

Dolores strikes a fierce look as she leads Caleb and others into action, yet prior to this we see her sipping champagne in a classy Delos outdoor lounge, again seeming to show the existence of a present and future timeline, and suggesting that her infiltration of Delos ends badly. However, it doesn’t detract from the ominous look Charlotte gives a hulking Riot Control robot, which can’t be good for the old human side of things. We see a sprinkle of romance, between both Dolores and Charlotte, and Maeve and Hector, reinforcing that the Hosts are becoming ever more sentient. Lastly, Dolores remarks on her distaste for the real world as she approaches a new character, who seems to be either a piece of her game at Delos, or a member of her new human cohort.

Delos soldiers open fire on a poor robot, who likely has been commandeered by Dolores or Charlotte to help enact their evil scheme, and I suspect this is probably the point where it starts going downhill for them. As well as this, the lack of Charlotte’s presence in shots of the human group seems to suggest her end may be near. It’s followed by a few action shots, as guns are pointed, butchers are charged, axes are twirled and construction workers are dangled off buildings. Caleb points a pistol at Bernard, confirming that at some point he and Dolores will be at odds, but no sign on whether or not Maeve shows up to save the day. Speaking of, she whacks the shit out of some soldiers, which could be dressed up Guests, but might be hinting that her host controlling abilities may have a limit.

The trailer ends on a supsenseful shot of a Delos executive played by Vincent Cassel and his security team marching after Charlotte, who seemingly takes a shot at them, but it’s hard to tell with tricksy trailer editing. However, it reaffirms that Dolores’ plan seems to go completely off the rails, leading up to her being found by Caleb in the alleyway at the start of the trailer. At this point it’s all speculation, but the trailer definitely makes it seem plausible.

Well, HBO definitely seem to be ramping Westworld up a few levels this season, and I’m excited as fuck, so hopefully it won’t be that long until the show returns to our screens. The trailer itself is masterfully crafted I must say, and certainly does it’s job at generating hype. Stay tuned to our page to see more in depth coverage from SDCC!