Fargo creator Noah Hawley, as he promised, has found a date on his calendar and is moving forward with a fourth season of his Emmy-winning series toplined by Chris Rock who’ll play the head of a crime family. FX Networks and Productions CEO John Landgraf announced the news today at TCA.
Series EP Warren Littlefield told Deadline back in June that they have a city and year for season 4, and as unveiled today that’s 1950, Kansas City, Missouri. Littlefield also told us that season 4 would go into production during fall 2019.
Essentially the locale will serve as the crossroads and collisions of two migrations, Italians coming from Italy and African Americans fleeing the south to escape Jim Crow, both fighting for a piece of the American dream as two controlling crime syndicates. They are at an uneasy peace controlling an alternate economy of exploitation, graft and drugs. To cement their peace, the heads of both families have traded their eldest sons.
Rock’s character in order to prosper has surrendered his oldest boy to his enemy, and who must in turn raise his son’s enemy as his own. Then the head of the Kansas City mafia goes into the hospital for routine surgery and dies. And everything changes.
Rock said in a statement, “I’m a fan of Fargo and I can’t wait to work with Noah.”
Season four sounds like it’s a cousin to season two which took place in 1979 and saw Jean Smart as Fargo criminal matriarch Floyd Gerhardt who squares off with a Kansas City crime syndicate, one which sends a violent and philosophical Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine) to clean up affairs. Mike in turn has an affair with Floyd’s rebellious granddaughter Simone (Rachel Keller).
The fourth year of Fargo will mark a return to FX for Chris Rock, who served as an EP on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell.
Hawley told ATX audiences last summer that he initially couldn’t foresee another season of Fargo given his busy production schedule which included the second season of Legion. He later clarified those statements by the end of Fargo‘s season 3, saying it was just a matter of time before he devoted his time to crafting a very clever season 4. This summer he is directing Natalie Portman in Fox Searchlight’s sci-fi film Pale Blue Dot. In addition to Hawley and Littlefield returning, so will EPs and the original Fargo feature architects Joel & Ethan Coen. MGM Television is the lead studio and foreign distributor of the series.
Rock is a four Emmy-award winner and three-time Grammy winner as well as a New York Times Best-Selling Author. He recently wrapped his international Total Blackout Tour, which was his first tour in 9 years which resulted in his first of two Netflix standup specials, Tamborine. This spring, Rock reunited with Adam Sandler in the Netflix movie movie, The Week Of. He also executive produced BET’s newest late-night talk show, The Rundown with Robin Thede.
Fargo’s first season won three Emmys, including Outstanding Miniseries, two Golden Globe Awards, including Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television, and a Peabody Award. The second installment received two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or Movie and Outstanding Sound Editing for a Limited Series, Movie or Special. The third installment won an additional Emmy and Golden Globe Award. The first two installments were also honored as an AFI Television Program of the Year.
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