Timothy Olyphant is joining the cast of the long awaited fourth season of Fargo. A veteran of FX’s programming from his time on Justified, Olyphant will return to the network as a recurring character in the anthology series. The new season will be set in 1950, centering on a delicate truce between the Kansas City Mafia and a rival black crime syndicate. The former is made up of Italian immigrants who came to the US en masse from their homeland, while the latter consists of black Americans who fled the South to escape Jim Crow laws. Both are commonly at odds as they pursue opportunity in Kansas City.
Chris Rock will star in the upcoming season as Loy Cannon, the leader of the black organization. Olyphant, meanwhile, will play a substantial role as Dick “Deafy” Wickware. Beyond the name, FX has not provided any information about the character. Olyphant has recently appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Netflix’s The Santa Clarita Diet.
Earlier this month, it was also announced that Glynn Turman (Super 8, House of Lies), Corey Hendrix (The Chi), and Matthew Elam would be joining the cast, and that Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black) had landed co-starring role opposite Rock. The cast also includes Jason Schwartzman, Ben Whishaw, Jack Huston, Andrew Bird, Jessie Buckley, Salvatore Esposito, Jeremie Harris, Anji White, Francesco Acquaroli, Gaetano Bruno, E’myri Crutchfield, and Amber Midthunder.
The development cycle for the latest installment of Fargo has been a long one, with its most recent season having aired in 2017. At the time of the third season’s finale, showrunner Noah Hawley cast doubt on whether fourth season would ever happen. As a new story arc gradually came together and Rock became attached to star, FX Networks CEO John Landgraf projected a 2019 release for season four. Over a year after that proclamation, the show is now targeted for a 2020 release, with filming set to begin in Chicago this Fall.