Jack Gruber-USA TODAY
Earlier this week, it was reported that Warner Bros. is developing a reboot of Michael Crichton’s 1973 sci-fi western Westworld, with screenwriter David Koepp penning the script. The report added that a “major mystery filmmaker” is attached to the project but did not specify who that is.
Movie fans on social media began to connect the dots and landed on none other than Steven Spielberg potentially being the “major mystery filmmaker” in question.
Movie fans are speculating that Steven Spielberg is the ‘major mystery filmmaker’ attached to the upcoming Westworld movie
The first piece of evidence is that Spielberg and Koepp have an extensive history of working together. Koepp wrote the first two Jurassic Park movies, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Spielberg’s upcoming sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day.
The second piece of the puzzle is a comment that Spielberg made during a keynote conversation at SXSW back in March, when he revealed that he had a western in development — which would be his first foray into the genre.
“I can’t reveal anything right now, but I have something in development — and it kicks ass,” Spielberg said, adding that there will be “horses,” “guns,” and “no tropes” and “no stereotypes.”
Koepp adapting Crichton for a story about a high-tech theme park concerning the folly of humanity i wonder if there’s a major director who’s done that before who’s also been talking up making his first Western https://t.co/RrLsAEiBBy
— coffee (@eventualforever) May 11, 2026
Steven Spielberg said at SXSW he is developing a western.
David Koepp is a frequent collaborator of Spielberg’s including on Disclosure Day.
Is Steven Spielberg directing Westworld??? https://t.co/5Fxz1xFFvk
— Cade Onder (@Cade_Onder) May 11, 2026
Written and directed by Michael Crichton, 1973’s Westworld follows well-off guests visiting an interactive western-themed music park filled with life-like androids that are intened to assist them in living out their cowboy fantasies. Those androids, however, begin to malfunction and retaliate on the guests.
The story was then adapted for television and ran for four seasons on HBO from 2016 to 2022 to diminishing returns.