EW cover story: Westworld season 2 is madami epic, brutal, trippy 

season 2’s violent delights, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly on stands Friday — or buy it right now here. Don’t forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.

Freeze all motor functions! Here’s some scoop about the ultra-mysterious second season of HBO’s

The sci-fi thriller is the subject of this week’s Entertainment Weekly cover story, where we go behind the scenes with an exclusive set visit exploring the dusty streets of Sweetwater and its underground high-tech labs. What can fans expect? Westworld is about to get way more expansive, a bit more violent, some degrees more strange, and introduce an all-new Rubik’s Cube narrative puzzle box for viewers to attempt to solve.

“The scale of season 2 is just nuts, literally right out of the gate,” says star Jeffrey Wright (Bernard Lowe). “It’s so much more expansive, it makes the first season look like a gentile kitchen drama.”

Those shots fired in Westworld‘s debut season finale as the adult theme park’s hosts (androids) were unshackled from their behavioral restraints give way to a full-blown revolution led by a ruthless Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) against their human zookeepers and the park’s guests. But she’ll have to get the rest of the hosts on board with her plans and fend off attacks from outsiders trying to regain control of the park.

“The leashes are off,” says Lisa Joy, who’s showrunner on the series along with Jonathan Nolan. “The hosts are now literally able to define themselves. But the question is: How far are you willing to go until you become a reflection of the evil you’re trying to fight?”

There’s also Maeve (Thandie Newton) searching for her daughter, The Man in Black (Ed Harris) having a rather tough time as he embarks on a new mission in the park, and Bernard getting caught in the middle between his Delos bosses and the rebelling hosts. But these teases are just ice cubes at the very tip of the new season’s story iceberg that may or may not be even on this planet. “We want to feel like the show is rocketing ahead,” Nolan says. “The first season was a journey inward, this is a journey outward. It’s a search for what else is in the park, and what else is beyond the park.”