Fargo season 5 likely to be the last, says showrunner Noah Hawley

Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemmons in Fargo
(Image credit: FX)

Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley has revealed that season 5 is likely to be the endpoint for the darkly comedic crime drama. 

When asked if season 5 was in the works during an interview with Vanity Fair, Hawley replied: "Yeah, I think so. I don’t have it yet. I have pieces that will have to survive. They’re not connected. I think it would be good to create an ending, and deliberately come to something, knowing it’s the last one and see how one might wrap up this anthology."

Based on the 1996 movie of the same name directed by the Coen brothers, the show first aired in 2014. Each season of the anthology series has had a different cast and storyline, as well as taking place in a different setting and era. Most recently, 2020's season 4 was set in '50s Kansas City and followed a gang war for control of the city. It starred Chris Rock, Jessie Buckley, Jason Schwartzman, and Ben Whishaw. 

Previous seasons have taken place in the '00s, present-day, and the '70s, and starred Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Ewan McGregor, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Fargo season 5 may not be on the cards for a while, though, as Hawley is currently busy with other projects. In December 2020, it was announced that he would be helming a TV show based on Alien, the 1979 movie starring Sigourney Weaver and directed by Ridley Weaver, for FX. Set on Earth, Hawley revealed in the same Vanity Fair interview that the series will not feature Weaver's character Ripley, as he "doesn't want to mess with" her story. 

Hawley was also the showrunner of Legion, a series set in the same universe as The X-Men, which starred Dan Stevens, Aubrey Plaza, and Jemaine Clement and aired for three seasons between 2017 and 2019. He directed the 2019 sci-fi movie Lucy in the Sky, starring Natalie Portman and Jon Hamm, although the film was not successful at the box office. 

While we wait for Fargo season 5 to – eventually – arrive on our screens, fill out your watch list with our picks of the best TV shows of 2020.

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.