Like a door that may or may not open, the prospect of Fargo’s fourth season has been an open mystery for over a year, its existence dependent on creator Noah Hawley’s increasingly crowded schedule, the remaining stock of philosophical Midwestern morality plays, and the approval of the FX brass. With Hawley between seasons of Legion and bandying about cryptic details about a season-four period piece, the final Fargo puzzle piece fell into place this morning, when FX boss John Landgraf announced the show’s renewal, the fourth installment’s premise, and its star: Chris Rock.
“I’m a fan of Fargo and I can’t wait to work with Noah,” Rock said in a statement released during the Television Critics Association summer press tour. Specifically, he can’t wait to head up one of two warring Kansas City crime families—one black, the other Italian—in 1950. As you may remember, the Kansas City Mafia played a major role in the show’s second and best season, the primary antagonists to the Gerhardt family and employers of Fargo all-star Mike Milligan. Here, the underworld that mafia runs will be thrown into disarray when their leader unexpectedly dies during a routine surgery, complicating a peace previously brokered in an exchange of eldest sons, which leaves Rock’s character raising his enemy’s kid as his own. This will surely involve a lot of elongated vowel sounds as well.
Fargo is set to return to FX in 2019.