Although “Fargo” is an anthology series, the FX drama has made it clear over its first three seasons that the all the seasons exist within the same world.
That was most apparent in Season 2, when Patrick Wilson played a younger version of the Keith Carradine’s Lou Solverson from the first season. During a conversation with TheWrap at the Television Critics Association on Thursday, creator Noah Hawley teased how the upcoming fourth season could tie into earlier versions.
“It’s no coincidence that Ben Whishaw’s character is named ‘Milligan,’” Hawley said. FX announced last July that Whishaw would play a character named “Rabbi Milligan.” Viewers of Season 2 would remember that Bokeem Woodbine played a hitman named Mike Milligan for the Kansas City Mafia in their war against the Gerhardt crime family. Season 4 also takes place in Kansas City, set roughly 20 years earlier.
But as for how the two may be connected, Hawley wouldn’t say. However, he promised that any tie-ins to past seasons would be Easter eggs at most, like when Mr. Wrench (Russell Harvard) from Season 1 made a cameo appearance in Season 3. “We won’t hit it over the head,” Hawley said. “We showed the ‘Big Book of True Crime in the Midwest’ at a certain point in Season 2.” He said it’s very likely the story of Season 4 is written in that book.
Season 4 of “Fargo” will premiere on April 19, exactly two years to the day that Season 3 debuted. That’s because it’s never a given that there will be another season of “Fargo,” says Hawley. “Every time I do one, I think it’s the last one,” Hawley continued. “And then some period of time passes, and I go ‘Oh, I could do that.’”
So it makes sense, then, that he told TheWrap as of now he is not planning a fifth season. He’ll be busy though, as he’s set to direct the next “Star Trek” film.
“I’m very aware of outstaying my welcome. I don’t want to repeat myself,” he said. “I feel like what was so exciting about this fourth season was that it is period, it does have a cast of 25. It is this sort of epic, in scale, that is addressing a lot of social and cultural issues that seemed important at this moment. I always joke that the next season could be on the Starship Fargo, Year 2150. Or we could go back and do 1812. Those are all available but I don’t have any plans at that moment to make any more.”