You can’t hide anything from an obsessive fandom in 2018, a fact known all-too-well by Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. They’ve said in the run-up to the second season that they “love to fuck with Reddit,” suggesting that, rather than watching in dismay as the online community uncovers all their best-laid plot twists months before they’re supposed to, the showrunners will be actively anticipating that level of interaction with their viewers, seeding secrets intentionally or even misdirecting them.
Accordingly, pretty much all of the new season’s promotional material has, thus far, been littered with secrets. Just a couple weeks ago, a poster contained glitches which directed people toward a tourist website for the fictional theme park, which itself contained a separate trailer. Last week, a new trailer provided the public with their most detailed view of the upcoming season yet, but, of course, it was no mere trailer: It also contained a single shot of a trunk plastered in strange markings. You know what Reddit did from there.
Yes, turns out it was a binary code that, when entered into a binary calculator, spits out an address for a website for the show’s fictional Delos Incorporated containing a whole new, glitch-heavy trailer. Samurais are involved. You can watch it below.
It’s pretty fucked up! Like the Delos and Westworld websites, the video cutsthe show’s signature surreal imagery with serene, techno-utopian marketing language, bringing out a new dimension to the fiction. It’d be cool to see some more pointed critique of Silicon Valley’s messiah complex along these lines in the new season, in addition to what sure seems like a lot of samurais. The new season begins April 22, assuming we’re not already living in it, or something.
[via Esquire]