Movies · News · TV

You Betcha, This Fargo Season 3 Cast is Impressive

Well color me excited, hon.
By  · Published on December 21st, 2016

Well color me excited, hon.

Fargo has reliably delivered exceptional ensemble casts, and Season 3 will be no different.

THR is reporting that the upcoming season of the FX crime anthology will feature Michael Stuhlbarg (Dr. Strange) as right hand man “Sy Feltz”; Scoot McNairy (Halt and Catch Fire) as stoner Maurice LeFay; Shea Whigham (American Hustle) as Meeker County Chief of Police Moe Dammick; Karan Soni (Deadpool) as Dr. Homer Gilruth; Fred Melamed (Lady Dynamite) as Howard Zimmerman, “a mover and a shaker”; and Thomas Mann (Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl) as sci-fi author Thaddeus Mobley. Stuhlbarg and Melamed are no strangers to Coen projects, having co-starred in A Serious Man (2009).

This news comes in the wake of EW’s report that David Thewlis (a.k.a. Remus Lupin) is joining up as a season regular. Thewlis will play V.M. Vargas, “a mysterious loner and true capitalist.”

These newer additions round out an already fantastic core cast, featuring the likes of Carrie Coon (Gone Girl), who will play Eden Valley chief of police and recent divorcee Gloria Burgle, “a practical woman who grabs the fire extinguisher when the bacon catches fire and everyone panics.”

Ewan friggin’ McGregor (in his first regular role in a TV series) will portray this seasons’ protagonist(s), the brothers Emmit and Ray:

Emmit Stussy is the Parking Lot King of Minnesota. A handsome, self-made, real estate mogul and family man, Emmit sees himself as an American success story. His slightly younger brother, Ray Stussy, on the other hand is more of a cautionary tale. Balding, pot-bellied, Ray is the kind of guy who peaked in high school. Now a parole officer, Ray has a huge chip on his shoulder about the hand he’s been dealt, and he blames his brother, Emmit, for his misfortunes.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead (10 Cloverfield Lane) is cast as Nikki Swango, “a crafty and alluring recent parolee with a passion for competitive bridge playing.”

Jim Gaffigan (The Jim Gaffigan Show) is set to play Donny Marshman, “a police deputy who works alongside Gloria Burgle,” Coon’s character.

Fargo’s storytelling succeeds by virtue of its strong ensembles: peculiar, endearing, and deeply flawed folks trying their darndest to do the right thing and routinely missing the mark. The repercussions and the individuals intertwined in these decisions are not always apparent to the characters ‐ but they are to us. And like classic tragedy, watching the drama unfold as a consequence of shitty, shitty decision-making is both dread-inducing, and positively riveting. Fargo’s momentum is a group effort: a snowballing propulsion into a flaming pile up of plucky law enforcement, eccentric criminals, and regular joes caught in the crossfire.

This is, I think, what fuels the absurdity and misfortune at the heart of both the Coen original, and the FX series: characters taking aim at a bullseye, and hitting a bull.

Lester Nygaard (Freeman) fucking up, probably.
Season One featured Billy Bob Thornton’s sinister and delightful drifter (and his sinister and delightful bowl cut); Martin Freeman’s deplorable Lester Nygaard; and endearing performances from Colin Hanks, Allison Tolman, and Bob Odenkirk. Likewise, last year’s Season Two brought together the inimitable Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons; FSR favourite Patrick Wilson; a stern and commanding Jean Smart; the one and only Ted Danson; and a memorable turn by Bokeem Woodbine.

Season Three’s categorically stellar cast measures up to the precedent of Fargo’s previous ensembles. I can’t wait to watch their shitty, shitty decisions unravel.

Season 3 is rumored to be set in 2010 (some years after the events of Season 1, and a couple decades after Season 2). Explains series creator Noah Hawley: “I like the idea of setting up these pragmatic and humble people against the culture of narcissism and [seeing] what that generates for us, story-wise.”

While I am stoked out of my gosh darned mind for this new cast, FX president John Landgraf’s heavy implication that at least one former character will return is exciting as hell: “As far as I know there is one [character] returning. That doesn’t mean [Hawley] might not change his mind and there might not be more.”

Fargo Season 3 is expected to debut in the spring of 2017.

Related Topics: ,

Based in the Pacific North West, Meg enjoys long scrambles on cliff faces and cozying up with a good piece of 1960s eurotrash. As a senior contributor at FSR, Meg's objective is to spread the good word about the best of sleaze, genre, and practical effects.