James Marsden calls Westworld's cancellation a 'disappointment,' still wants to 'complete the story'

James Marsden is still holding out hope that he'll return to Westworld once again.

The actor, who made a surprise return as charming cowboy Teddy in season 4 of the HBO sci-fi series, revealed that he was less than pleased to learn that the show had been officially canceled last November.

"I'd be lying to you if I told you that the way we ended Westworld wasn't a disappointment," Marsden told Rolling Stone. "I'm never going to speak without gratitude about any of my experiences, but it would have been nice to be able to complete the story we wanted to finish."

"I love this Westworld family. It was one of those unique opportunities to be part of something where I also would be sitting at home ravenously waiting for the next episode as a fan," he continued. "I totally understand it's an expensive show and big shows have to have big audiences to merit the expense, I just wish it was about more than financial success."

Still, Marsden noted, he'd love to see the full vision they had set for the series — which has since been removed from HBO Max — properly realized onscreen one day. "Who knows, maybe there's some world where it can get completed somehow," he said. "Maybe that's just wishful thinking, because I know we had plans to finish it the way we wanted to."

Created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the Emmy-winning series centered around a futuristic theme park that quickly goes off the rails when its life-like robots — played by Marsden, Evan Rachel Wood, and Thandiwe Newton, among others — stage an uprising against their rich clientele. Last August, Joy told EW that she and Nolan already had a plan for a fifth season in mind.

"We never broke [the show] with an exact number of seasons left," Joy said. "but then when we were writing this season, we were like, 'We can get it up to the precipice before we round it out with what we had always planned would happen in the fifth season.' So we have, like Dolores, one more story to tell — and whether we get to tell it, we'll see."

Marsden wasn't the only person surprised by the show's cancelation. Luke Hemsworth, who played Ashley Stubbs, happened to find out the bad news on his 42nd birthday.

"I was like, 'F---! Dammit!'" Hemsworth told Entertainment Tonight at the time. "You hope these things go forever, but everyone's got their own reasons. I'm very thankful for my part in that series, and that journey was a big part of my life, but yeah, it was disappointing."

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