Fargo type TV Show network FX genre Drama

Crime

Anthology

Fargo is leaving the 20th century behind for season 3.

FX’s acclaimed anthology drama was set in 2006 for its Emmy-winning debut season last year, and then the action shifted to 1979 for its current second season.

Season 3 will take place a couple years after the first season, EW has learned exclusively.

“It’s more contemporary,” showrunner Noah Hawley said when asked about the season 3 time period. “It’s set a couple years after season 1.”

Asked if this means some characters from the first season will return (or maybe even we’ll see older versions of characters from season 2), the writer-producer replied, “Potentially.”

The two seasons of Fargo have had entirely different casts, though one key character, Lou Solverson, was played by different actors in both seasons (Keith Carradine in season 1 and Patrick Wilson in season 2). Solverson’s daughter Molly (Allison Tolman) was a main character the first year, and a young minor character this year. Given that those two characters were in both seasons, one would suppose they’re among the most likely to continue in some capacity in season 3. But Hawley has also previously expressed some reluctance to put Molly Solverson through the dramatic wringer again, given her character’s satisfying season 1 arc.

We also asked Hawley if there were any hints about season 3 planted in the current season of Fargo, which FX recently renewed.

“There are going to be connections, the way the first year was connected to the movie and the second year was connected to the first, but I think part of the fun is figuring that stuff out and I wouldn’t want to take that away from anybody,” he said. “There will be definitely things that connect to something in our story.”

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Hawley noted the show’s setting always has to at least be a few years in the past given the show “based on a true story format.”

“The idea of the ‘true story’ is it always has to be at least a few years ago, because the idea is we finally know what really happened and it took time — because the book doesn’t come out until five or six years after,” he said.

Fargo has been building toward a dramatic confrontation and the fabled “Massacre at Sioux Falls” all season, and there are only two episodes left. Fargo airs Monday nights on FX. Is there any chance Kansas City enforcer Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine) can somehow survive so he can return next season, around 60 years old and more lethal than ever?