Fargo Renewed for Season 2 Prequel — New Details on Time Period, Returning Characters
FARGO “The Rooster Prince” — Episode 102 — Aired Tuesday, April 22, 10:00 pm e/p on FX
Above: Allison Tolman as Molly Solverson and Keith Carradine as Lou Solverson in Fargo – Season 1
Tolman's Reaction on Twitter
Woahwoahwoahwoahhhhhh. Let's be real. Molly super fans can boycott season two of Fargo, but I'll be watching the fuck out of it. — Allison Tolman (@Allison_Tolman) July 21, 2014
FX on Monday announced that it has ordered a second season of its Emmy-nominated series Fargo.
The new 10-episode chapter (to launch in Fall 2015, at the earliest) will feature all-new characters (played by all-new actors), a new period of time and a new true crime story.
The series’ 10-episode first season, which recently netted 18 Emmy nominations, was inspired by the Coen Brothers’ 1996 film of the same name, followed the fallout caused by murders in the Minnesota city of Bemidji.
Highlights from the Fargo panel with executive producers Noah Hawley and Warren Littlefield:
At the Television Critics Association fall previews on Monday, Fargo creator Noah Hawley announced the time period for the second season.
“If you were paying attention to Season 1, we made a lot of reference to Sioux Falls, [South Dakota]. That was not an accident,” he said. “It will take place in 1979 and take place around … Luverne, Minnesota and Fargo and Sioux Falls.”
Season 2 — which is influenced by the Cohen brothers’ Fargo, Miller’s Crossing and The Man Who Wasn’t There — is “going to be the story of Sioux Falls,” Hawley revealed. “It will take place in 1979.” As such, a younger version of Keith Carradine’s character Lou Solverson, a/k/a Molly’s dad, will be introduced. It was established in Fargo’s first season that in 1979, Lou worked on a Sioux Falls task force with future Duluth police lieutenant Ben Schmidt, who was the commanding officer of Gus Grimley (Colin Hanks). He will also “factor in there somewhere” in Season 2.
In the first season, cop-turned-diner owner Lou Solverson often mysteriously referred to a major incident that occurred back in Sioux Falls.
“Lou Solverson is a state police officer. His wife (is) Betsy, (and) her dad is the sheriff of Rock County,” Hawley said.
“[Lou's] father-in-law is a character in this next go-round. I don’t know if we see any other Solversons… I’m excited to spend time with Molly’s mom.” He also added that Molly did not get her plucky spirit only from her dad. The Lou that viewers meet in 1979 is a 33-year-old man recently returned from Vietnam who “thought he’d left the war behind and here it is, it’s domestic [now].”
Molly’s mother will be introduced and fans may learn what happened to her, Hawley teased.
Could Allison Tolman possibly play her alter ego’s own mother? “I haven’t considered it,” Hawley admitted. “It seems a little gimmicky to me and like cheating."
However casting has not begun yet, but since Lou’s daughter Molly will only be 4 y.o. in 1979, breakout star Allison Tolman will not reprise her Emmy-nominated role and most likely will not play her mother Betsy. Hawley acknowledged, “she should be in everything everyone ever makes as far as I’m concerned.”
Some of the action will also take place in Laverne, Minnesota, and, of course, Fargo. “Minnesota [and] North Dakota, that region is a character in the show,” Hawley said.
Season 2 will shoot from January to May returning back to the Calgary area and will air in fall 2015.
