BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — FX is taking another trip to “Fargo,” where the cast is changing but some of the characters are not.
The network announced this week that it has renewed the series for a second season with new actors, time period and crime.
Executive Producer Noah Hawley told a TV Critics’ panel that season two will be set primarily in North Dakota in 1979 with a younger version of the Lou Solverson character (played by Keith Carradine in season one.) His daughter, Molly, who Allison Tolman portrayed, is just 4 years old.
Hawley said he’s open to changing the weather and is toying with starting the story in the winter and transitioning to spring and summer.
The earliest the series will air is fall 2015.
Hawley said it would be easier to tap the same actors to return, but he’s committed to making “Fargo” an anthology.
FX CEO John Landgraf said that while he thinks casting an Oscar-winning actor like Billy Bob Thornton helped attract viewers, he’s not sure that it’s necessary for season two.
Landgraf noted that Tolman, who began the series as an unknown actress, now has an Emmy nomination.
“We needed Billy Bob Thornton, but now the show, the title, the tone, the writing … are the star of that show,” Landgraf said.
Landgraf compared “Fargo,” which also starred Martin Freeman, to HBO’s “True Detective,” saying the latter “is gonna have to prove that it’s more than just a vehicle for movie stars.” Hawley has “already proven he can write something really great,” Landgraf said.
“Fargo” has earned 18 Emmy nominations. It was based on the 1996 Coen brothers’ movie.
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