Japanese actor and martial artist Hiroyuki Sanada will be joining the cast of HBO’s Westworld in a major recurring role for season 2, TV Guide reports. In addition to the fact that Sanada will be playing a new character named Musashi for multiple episodes, the outlet also did a little bit of digging and discovered that the character could give the audience a closer look at Samurai World (park name unconfirmed), a sister park to Westworld hinted at in the season 1 finale.
For this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Funko unveiled a wave of exclusive HBO-related Pop! vinyl figures, including one for a character of the name Musashi; he hadn’t been introduced on the show before and sports a samurai-appropriate sword, helmet and armor. Westworld clearly isn’t Delos Incorporated’s only venture, and the toy would suggest that at least one of those other ventures will get some time in the spotlight next season.
SDCC 2017 Exclusives Wave 10: HBO – Game of Thrones & Westworld! https://t.co/2Cx21K9fZG pic.twitter.com/TCnsH3bPHb
— Funko (@OriginalFunko) June 29, 2017
Westworld season 2, which will premiere sometime in 2018. will also feature such newcomers to the cast as Neil Jackson, Jonathan Tucker, Katja Herbers, Talulah Riley and Louis Herthum.
Deadline also picked up on the casting news, but in its report briefly confirmed that Sanada is set to return to the world of superhero movies with a supporting role in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War, after playing the evil Shingen Yashida in Fox’s The Wolverine. The outlet claims that shooting for the massive blockbuster is next up on the actor’s schedule, although principal photography on Infinity War actually ended in July. This could mean that Sanada is being brought in for reshoots, or, more likely, the website made a mistake and meant to write Avengers 4 (which is still untitled and filming now), not Infinity War. Either way, Sanada has a number of exciting projects on his horizon.
The actor made an impression on many moviegoers with his performance in this year’s Life but has been popping up in major projects for the past two decades, including The Last Samurai, Rush Hour 3, Speed Racer, Lost, The Last Ship and more.
