Westworld’s spoiler reveal turns out to be an elaborate Rickroll

Yesterday, Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy gave the show’s fans an intriguing offer: in order to fight endless theorizing and spoilers for the upcoming second season of the HBO show, they’d publish a video revealing the entire plot of the new season if a post on Reddit got 1,000 upvotes. The post hit the magic number a few hours later, and shortly afterward, Nolan commented with a link to a 25-minute video titled “Westworld Season 2 — A Primer.”

The video opens with a shot from the trailers of Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) on a beach, complete with voiceover of Wright narrating. There are references to “The Door,” which has been hinted at as a theme for the new season in the same way “The Maze” was for season 1. Everything seems on the level. Evan Rachel Wood’s Dolores appears, and it seems like we’re about to get some more information on what happens next.

And then the familiar chords of Rick Astley’s infamous internet troll ballad, “Never Gonna Give You Up,” start to play.

Yup, it’s a Rickroll. It’s a very elaborate one, to be sure, complete with Evan Rachel Wood actually covering the song with piano accompaniment from fellow cast member Angela Sarafyan on set, but it’s a troll nonetheless. The rest of the video is filled with an extended clip of a dog at a piano, as a tribute to the recently deceased Bento the Keyboard Cat.

It’s a fun reveal, albeit one that preys on the goodwill of the most enthusiastic fans of the show by turning the endless attempts at guessing Westworld’s secrets into the butt of a joke. (Although commenters on Nolan’s post on Reddit seem to be taking the twist in good humor.) For now, it seems we’ll all have to enjoy finding out the mysteries of Westworld the old-fashioned way: by actually watching the show.