Westworld is coming back this month and, though the show's creators didn't exactly make good on their promise to spoil the season ahead of time, it's not exactly hard to imagine what season two's got in store for us: More parks, more timeline mindfuckery, and of course, more robot hosts hell-bent on slaughtering us feeble human meat bags. And so, to celebrate the return of all those terrifying things to come, the UK's Now TV decided to do something unusual—namely, to build a terrifying host-like robot of its own and release it on the public.
The British network dropped the humanoid robot, nicknamed "Fred," off at a London bar to do a little PR for the new season. In a short video of the stunt, Fred makes some light small talk with bar patrons about Westworld, the weather, and the impending robot apocalypse, before he appears to malfunction and smash a pint glass inside his herculean robot fist.
The robot was reportedly built over the course of 12 weeks by a company called Engineered Arts and modeled after an English dude named Tedroy Newell, who lent his likeness to Fred down to the moles on his face. According to one guy interviewed in the video, Fred looks "very, very realistic" and almost makes you forget you're "talking to a robot." But that guy must not have a lot of experience socializing with real humans, because Fred actually looks more like a horrifying automaton from a nightmare version of the Hall of Presidents than any of the realistic androids from HBO's hit sci-fi series—save for maybe that old cowboy host Ford hung out with sometimes.
Do Fred's soulless robot eyes and rubbery flesh get you excited for the premiere of season two? Is he the kind of thing you want to stumble across in a bar when you're trying to unwind after a long week? Do you think any of these bar patrons will ever be able to watch Westworld again, or has the sight of Fred's quivering, silicone lips scared them off of all robot shows for good?
Either way, it looks like humanity is still a few years away from having the technology necessary to craft our own flawless, Westworld-style hosts, since Fred has found himself lodged deep inside the Uncanny Valley like that stray host who fell in a hole in season one. Until our world gets better at robotics and the inevitable mechanical apocalypse dawns, you can check out the new season of Westworld starting April 22 on HBO.
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