Westworld creators pull off world's most elaborate rickroll with season 2 plot spoilers

'We're going to post a video that lays out the plot (and twists and turns) of season 2. Everything. The whole sordid thing. Up front.'

If an infinite number of monkeys/typewriters will reproduce the works of Shakespeare, then there's a good chance that a few million Westworld viewers will be able to correctly guess any given season of the show's narrative.

Realising this, co-creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy promised to pre-empt fans guessing the new season's twists and turns last night by simply laying out the entire plot up front.

The couple wrote at the close of a Reddit AMA:

"Many thanks for your great questions and thoughts. As I've [Jonathan speaking] said before, I've been a member of the reddit community for years (no I'm not going to share my original username...). And I greatly enjoyed watching the friendly folks at this subreddit guess the twists and turns of the season.

"It creates a larger problem for us, though, in terms of the way your guesswork is reported online. 'Theories' can actually be spoilers, and the line between the two is confusing. It's something we've been thinking about since last season. The fans of Game of Thrones, for instance, rallied around and protected the secrets of the narrative in part because they already knew those secrets (through season 5).

"We thought about this long and hard, and came to a difficult (and potentially highly controversial) decision. If you guys agree, we're going to post a video that lays out the plot (and twists and turns) of season 2. Everything. The whole sordid thing. Up front. That way the members of the community here who want the season spoiled for them can watch ahead, and then protect the rest of the community, and help to distinguish between what's 'theory' and what's spoiler.

"It's a new age, and a new world in terms of the relationship between the folks making shows and the community watching them. And trust is a big part of that. We've made our cast part of this decision, and they're fully supportive. We're so excited to be in this with you guys together. So if this post reaches a 1000 upvotes we'll deliver the goods."

1000 upvotes later and Reddit began to gloat, demanding these spoilers they were promised.Sure enough, Nolan and Joy came through with a 25-minute video (above), seeing Bernard awaken confused on a shore, questioned by new Delos enforcer character Karl Strand.

The production values were high and expense clearly went into this promo, but ultimately it led to Dolores actor Evan Rachel Wood singing Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up' (quite beautifully), followed by 20-odd minutes of a dog sitting in front of a piano.

Fear not, the actual Westworld season 2 is not far away now, beginning on HBO, Sky Atlantic and NOWTV on 22 April.