‘Fargo’ season 2 scoop: Next season set in 1979, more

You know how in FX’s Fargo there were all those cryptic references to Lou Solverson’s (Keith Carradine) traumatic case in Sioux Falls back in 1979?

That case is the focus of Fargo season 2.

Writer-producer Noah Hawley spoke to reporters at the Television Critics Association’s press tour in Beverly Hills on Monday, hours after FX officially confirmed that the Emmy-lauded show will get a 10-episode second season.

Hawley said the next season is set in 1979 and will feature a 33-year-old version of Solverson, a state cop recently back from fighting in the Vietnam War. “He thought he left the war behind, but he came back and here it is, it’s domestic,” the writer-producer teased. “We will meet Molly’s mother, who was not a character in season 1 … and we’ll learn what happened to her. Ben Schmidt [the police lieutenant played by Peter Breitmayer in the first season] will factor in there somewhere. … There were a lot of clues left in the first season and we’ll do our best to hit those.”

The writer noted the first season’s cinematic inspirations were the Coen brothers films Fargo, No Country for Old Men, and A Serious Man. Season 2 will be Fargo, Miller’s Crossing, and The Man Who Wasn’t There. “Let the internet speculation begin,” he said.

The story will be set in Sioux Falls, Luverne, and Fargo, and once again the show’s base of production will be Calgary in Alberta, Canada. FX expects the next season to premiere in fall, 2015.

Hawley confirmed the original cast will not return for season 2 (though noted to a few reporters afterward that having characters return in a presumed season 3 is possible—just not in back-to-back seasons). Even Carradine won’t appear next season, despite the second season’s lead being a younger version of his character (so there’s no framing device). “I think it’s going to be standalone as a period piece,” he said. Hawley noted that the American Horror Story model—using the same group of actors each season in an anthology series—doesn’t seem to be as suitable for Fargo, which tells true crime stories and uses a similar setting in the second season. “I would like nothing more than to see the continuing adventures of Molly and Gus, but it felt like it would be disingenuous to give them another crazy Coen brothers case,” he said. And while Hawley praised the AHS model for that show, he noted, “It gets hard to look past the actors. … I like the idea that the character comes first and hopefully the actor disappears into the role.”

“The subtitle will be Fargo: Backlash,” Hawley joked.