As with every season of Fargo, the fourth and latest instalment of Noah Hawley’s anthology show arrives as a clean slate.
As usual, the cast, period and setting are all swapped out for the new season, when we’ll wave goodbye to the 2010s Missouri and Ewan McGregor of season three, and wind things back seven decades, digging into the twisted battles of two 1950s crime syndicates in middle America.
Originally set to come out in April, but predictably pushed back due to the coronavirus crisis, Fargo season 4 is now ready to go, with a new cast, a new story – one that Hawley calls “twice the size of any story we’ve told [so far]” – and a new start.
From release date to cast, plot and trailers – here’s everything we know so far about Fargo season 4.
Fargo season 4 release date: when is it coming out?
The season was originally set to premiere on April 19, 2020, but its air date was pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, the show will arrive on FX in the United States on September 27, when the first two episodes will be aired back-to-back. New episodes will then follow weekly, and be available on Hulu the day after their TV premieres.
No UK release date has been confirmed yet, but it looks likely that, as with the first three seasons of the show, it will air on Channel 4.
let's try this again. @fargofx officially returns 9/27 on FX & next day on #FXonHulu. pic.twitter.com/BrYMcdkBUw
— FX Networks (@FXNetworks) August 10, 2020
Fargo season 4 trailer: can we watch a teaser?
Yes you can! Ahead of the coronavirus pandemic, and with the April release date still confirmed at the time, Fargo started 2020 by sharing a new teaser of season four back at the start of January.
The teaser introduces the show’s whole new cast, as is the way with Fargo, led by Chris Rock. From the looks of this first taste of the show, there’s going to be plenty of bitter rivalry between the fractured gangs of Kansas City.
Watch the trailer below.
Fargo cast: who is in the new season?
Sticking with Fargo’s anthology format, the new series introduces a whole new cast of fresh characters. Chris Rock leads as Loy Cannon, the head of an African-American crime family.
Jason Schwartzman is also in a lead role as Josto Fadda, the son of an Italian crime boss, while Ben Whishaw signs up to play criminal Rabbi Milligan.
Elsewhere, Jack Huston appears as Detective Odis Weff, while Emyri Crutchfield is also on board, and Jessie Buckley will play a wildcard nurse named Oraetta Mayflower.
Speaking of his lead role in the show, Rock has already stated in an interview that his time playing Cannon will be “the best part [he’ll] ever have.”.
Describing Cannon’s character, Rock added: “He’s a businessman, he’s a deacon at his church, he’s a loving father and husband, he owns a bank, and he’s also a criminal — he fixes fights and runs numbers and prostitution. He’s always on edge. It’s Tony Soprano-esque.”
What will happen in Fargo season 4?
Fargo’s third season, which aired in 2017, was set in Minnesota in 2010 with a cast including Ewan McGregor, Carrie Coon and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Season 4, however, jumps back 60 years to 1950 and is instead set in Kansas City, Missouri.
An official description of the forthcoming series reads: “In 1950, at the end of two great American migrations — that of Southern Europeans from countries like Italy, who came to the US at the turn of the last century and settled in northern cities like New York, Chicago — and African Americans who left the south in great numbers to escape Jim Crow and moved to those same cities — you saw a collision of outsiders, all fighting for a piece of the American dream.
“In Kansas City, Missouri, two criminal syndicates have struck an uneasy peace. One Italian, one African American. Together they control an alternate economy — that of exploitation, graft and drugs. This too is the history of America. To cement their peace, the heads of both families have traded their eldest sons.”
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Rock described the forthcoming series as “the biggest Fargo,” saying: “The scale is tremendous. Fargo normally tells little stories that get out of hand.
“They’re about ordinary people, something happens, and then we get to see how evil ordinary people can be. This is quite different. We start off gangsters, so we’re beginning with bad people, and then it escalates.”
Showrunner Noah Hawley also hinted at a large-scale story, telling Collider last year: “The cast is incredible. I would say it’s twice the size of any story we’ve told, both financially and the scope of it, the scale of it, the period of it.
“There’s no reason to do this again unless I think it could be the best one yet.”