After a Three-Year Hiatus, ‘Fargo’ to Return With Season 5
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It’s been a long wait for fans of FX's blackly comedic crime series, Fargo, which aired its fourth season in the fall of 2020. But three years on, the show is finally returning for a fifth run, which will chronicle a brand new story set in the Midwest, with an ensemble cast that includes Juno Temple, Jon Hamm and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Here’s all the key info to know about the Season 5, including plot, release date and more.
What is Fargo Season 5 about?
As is typical for the series, plot details for the new season have been largely kept under wraps. We do know that Season 5 is the most contemporary one yet, taking place in 2019 (the first four seasons were set in 2006, 1979, 2010 and 1950 respectively). The logline for Season 5 simply reads: “When is a kidnapping not a kidnapping, and what if your wife isn’t yours?” A slightly more detailed recent synopsis offered a couple more plot details: “After an unexpected series of events lands 'Dorothy ‘Dot’ Lyon' (Juno Temple) in hot water with the authorities, this seemingly typical Midwestern housewife is suddenly plunged back into a life she thought she had left behind.”
FX chairman John Landgraf told The Hollywood Reporter that Season 5 is “particularly comedic” compared to the previous ones, and added that its lead character, played by Temple, is “a housewife with a secret [who] is surprisingly capable.”
Do you need to watch Fargo Seasons 1-4 to watch Fargo Season 5?
Since Fargo is an anthology series, each season tells a self-contained story with no major connections to other seasons. So there’s no need to catch up on previous seasons before tuning into Season 5. But with that being said, all of the show’s seasons do take place in the same canonical universe, and creator Noah Hawley has a habit of dropping in Easter eggs for hardcore fans, so if you’re all caught up you’ll probably catch a few of those references.
Who's in the Fargo Season 5 cast?
Juno Temple as Dorothy 'Dot' Lyon
Best known in recent years for her Emmy-nominated role as Keeley in Ted Lasso, Temple stars in Fargo Season 5 as Dorothy "Dot" Lyon, a seemingly typical Midwestern homemaker whose complex past comes to light when she lands in hot water with the authorities.
Jon Hamm as Roy Tillman
Hamm makes his much-anticipated return to cable TV, taking a starring role in a limited series for the first time since Mad Men went off the air in 2015. He plays Roy Tillman, a North Dakota sheriff who’s spent a long time searching for Dot.
“Dot needs a great adversary to tell this story and we felt that Jon could really sing from that hymnal,” executive producer Warren Littlefield told EW. “That he could be that North Dakota sheriff who really, really bought into an entire world philosophy, a rigidity, and he has an ax to grind and so he is such a critical pillar in Dot's story, the reveal of who she is, what is her past."
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Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lorraine
Leigh plays Dot’s mother-in-law Lorraine, a successful local businesswoman who’s a constant thorn in Dot’s side. Given Leigh’s history with Fargo originators the Coen Brothers in 1994’s The Hudsucker Proxy, among her other iconic roles, Littlefield describes her casting as a “huge win” for the show. “She steals a lot of scenes. Noah wrote great words for her," he told EW.
Joe Keery as Gator
Keery, best known as Stranger Things fan favorite Steve Harrington, plays the role of Gator. He’s Roy’s “loyal but feckless son,” who’s eager to help out his father in his crime-fighting endeavors.
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David Rhysdahl as Wayne
Rhysdahl, who most recently played the role of chemist Donald Hornig in Oppenheimer, stars opposite Temple as Dot’s well-meaning but clueless husband, Wayne.
Lamorne Morris as Witt Far
Morris is best known for playing Winston in the long-running and beloved Fox sitcom New Girl. Not many details have been released about his role in Fargo as yet, except that he’s playing a character named Witt Far.
Richa Moorjani as Indira Olmstead
Moorjani, who plays Kamala in Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, is another cast member whose role has been kept under wraps. She plays a character named Indira Olmstead.
How does Fargo Season 5 relate to the other seasons?
As mentioned above, although Fargo is an anthology show, it also has an intricate internal mythology in which the events of each season occasionally overlap. For example, during Season 1, veteran cop Lou Solverson (played by Keith Carradine) made a passing reference to a situation which became a central part of Season 2 (in which Lou was played by Patrick Wilson). Most of the overlaps with previous seasons aren’t that overt, and it’s not clear yet what links Season 5 may have to the show’s past, but it’s safe to bet there’ll be a few callbacks. The same is true of the original Coen Brothers movie Fargo, which is referenced a few times throughout the show and provides a clear tonal blueprint, but doesn’t directly connect.
What is the Fargo Season 5 release date?
Fargo Season 5 will premiere its first two episodes on FX on Nov. 21, 2023. The season will then air weekly, with the finale slated for Jan. 16, 2024.
How many episodes are in Fargo Season 5?
Just like the previous seasons of Fargo, Season 5 will consist of 10 episodes. Titles for the first two episodes have already been released: they’ll be called “The Tragedy of the Commons” and “Trials and Tribulations.”
How to watch Fargo Season 5
Fargo is an FX original, so initially the new season will be available only on FX. But there’s good news for streaming subscribers: Thanks to the cable platform’s ongoing partnership with Hulu, you can also watch new episodes weekly via FX On Hulu.
Is there a Fargo Season 5 trailer?
So far there are three teasers, each focusing on a different cast member. The first trailer released spotlights Juno Temple as Dot Lyon, a seemingly ordinary Midwestern homemaker with a lot of skeletons in her closet, while another centers on Jon Hamm as Roy Tillman.
The third and most enigmatic trailer offers a glimpse of Joe Keery as Gator, Tillman’s son.
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