Fargo season 5 is officially happening, with creator Noah Hawley returning to write. More than a year after Season 4 concluded, FX has picked up Fargo for a fifth season that asks the questions, "When is a kidnapping not a kidnapping, and what if your wife isn’t yours?"
Fargo is set in the same universe as the Coen brothers’ 1996 black comedy film of the same name. Created by Noah Hawley (Legion, The Unusuals), Fargo premiered on FX in 2015 to widespread critical acclaim, with many even declaring it better than the iconic Coen brothers’ film. Season 4 of Fargo, starring Chris Rock and Jason Schwartzman, aired in fall 2020 and was set in Kansas City, instead of the usual snowy Minnesota or North Dakota setting. After the acquisition of Fox Networks by Disney, Hawley was hired to develop an Alien TV series, and Fargo was seemingly put on hold.
But FX executives officially announced Fargo season 5 at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. "Noah and Warren [Littlefield] have delighted and inspired fans through four brilliant chapters of Fargo, and we’re thrilled to announce with our partners at MGM a new chapter of what has become one of TV’s best and most acclaimed series," said Eric Schrier, president of FX Entertainment.
As per FX chairman John Landgraf, via Deadline, Fargo season 5 will be set in 2019 and somewhere in the upper Midwest. Season 5 asks, "When is a kidnapping not a kidnapping, and what if your wife isn’t yours?" If that sounds similar to the plot of the 1996’s Fargo, that’s because it is. The full plot isn’t known yet, but season 5 will be a lot more influenced by the original movie than the previous seasons but will still tell a thrilling original story. Landgraf said at the TCA winter virtual tour, "Noah Hawley has always found a way of respecting the original Coen Brothers movie but also inventing new settings and new stories. [Season 5] has a particular echo or rhyme with the movie. But it’s utterly original."
The initial draft of the script has been delivered, and the network intends to begin filming Fargo this winter before Hawley begins production on Alien next year. Fargo season 5 will most likely debut in 2023.
Noah Hawley’s Alien TV Series Has Been Delayed At FX
Noah Hawley was announced to be developing a television series based on Ridley Scott’s Alien. Set in the same universe as the 1979 film and its subsequent sequels, the show will be set on Earth and won’t focus much on Ellen Ripley or the Xenomorphs. John Landgraf recently confirmed that the Alien series won't feature any known characters except the "alien" and will take place before any of the movies. However, he did say the show is set 70 years from now, which puts its timeline around the events of Prometheus.
"Noah has this incredible ability, and I think you’ve seen it with Fargo, to both find a way of being faithful, showing fidelity to an original creation like a Coen brothers’ movie, or in this case, Ridley Scott’s and James Cameron’s follow-up, Aliens, but also to bring something new to the table that represents extension and reinvention of a franchise at the same time," Landgraf says of the series. He also calls Alien "the most ambitious production in the history of FX."
With Hawley busy with Fargo, Alien will only begin shooting next year, and could premiere in late 2023 at the earliest.