HBO has set Sunday, March 15 at 9 PM for the release of the eight-episode third season of its Emmy-winning drama series Westworld.

Returning cast include Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores, Thandie Newton as Maeve, Ed Harris as the Man in Black, Jeffrey Wright as Bernard, Tessa Thompson as Charlotte, Luke Hemsworth as Stubbs, Simon Quarterman as Lee Sizemore and Rodrigo Santoro as Hector Escaton.

New cast members this season include Aaron Paul, Vincent Cassel, Lena Waithe, Scott Mescudi, Marshawn Lynch, John Gallagher Jr., and Michael and Tommy Flanagan.

Created for television by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and based on the film written by Michael Crichton, Westworld is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the birth of a new form of life on Earth.

The theme for the new season is “New World” and at Comic-Con in July, Nolan said one of the inspirations for the new season was Blade Runner, though he noted he wanted to do it differently.

Nolan said they went out in the world to find some beautiful places to shoot to capture the show’s future. “Dystopia can look pretty beautiful in the world. Just because the world is corrupt inside, doesn’t mean it can’t be smothered over and pretty. We wanted to find a version of dystopia that we hadn’t seen before,” Nolan said at Comic-Con.

Nolan and Joy executive produce the series with J.J. Abrams, Athena Wickham, Richard J. Lewis, Ben Stephenson and Denise Thé. Kilter Films and Bad Robot Productions produce in association with Warner Bros Television.

The first two seasons of Westworld received a combined 42 Emmy nominations. The second season’s 20 noms resulted in three wins, including: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for Newton, Outstanding Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic) and Outstanding Hairstyling for a Single-Camera Series.