FX is thankfully bringing Fargo back for season 5

The new season of Noah Hawley's darkly comedic crime drama will begin filming this winter

By Saloni Gajjar | February 17, 2022 | 5:52pm

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FX is thankfully bringing Fargo back for season 5

Chris Rock in Fargo season 4 Photo: FX

FX is mercifully not leaving the Fargo train anytime soon. The cable network has renewed Noah Hawley’s acclaimed anthology drama for a fifth season, as announced during the Television Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour. The show last aired at the end of 2020, but there’s no update on when the next installment will air.

Fargo is a darkly comedic crime thriller inspired by the 1996 Coen brothers movie of the same name. It is set within the same universe as the film. Each season is set in a different era and location, telling different stories with a new cast and set of characters, with some minor overlaps.

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The brief description for season five is naturally cryptic. It takes place in 2019 and will tackle the following questions: “When is a kidnapping not a kidnapping, and what if your wife isn’t yours?” FX Chairman John Landgraf called the upcoming season “contemporary” and “set in the upper Midwest,” during an executive session at TCA.

“The first script for this season came in yesterday. Noah Hawley has always found a way of respecting and making a reference to the original Coen movies and inventing new stories. [Season five] has an echo and rhyme with the movie, but it’s really original,” Landgraf added. He also confirmed that Fargo season five will begin shooting later this year in the winter.

There’s no casting update yet, but Fargo has historically landed an all-star roster for each installment. The first season bagged multiple Emmy awards and starred Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, and Allison Tolman. Season two’s lineup included Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Jean Smart, while the third one starred Carrie Coon and Ewan McGregor. Season four, which arrived three years after the previous one, was led by Chris Rock, Jessie Buckley, and Ben Whishaw.

Fargo creator Hawley is also working on the Alien television series, based on Ridley Scott’s classic sci-fi horror movies. “We intend to shoot Fargo before Alien, even though we have more scripts of the latter right now,” Landgraf said about both projects. “Noah has this incredible ability, you’ve seen it with Fargo, to find a way to be faithful and show fidelity to the original, but bring something new to the table that represents both an extension and reinvention of the franchise at the same time.”