Word broke last month that Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons would be part of the ensemble for the second season of the Fargo-based TV series, which spins new takes on Coen brothers films into dark telly comedy drama. We now know that Patrick Wilson, Ted Danson, Nick Offerman and Jean Smart will be joining them for the show, which will be set in 1979.
Wilson will star as Lou Solverson, a clean-cut Minnesota state patrolman, four years back from Vietnam, where he served in the Navy. A humble and competent man, Lou is a devoted husband to his wife Betsy, and father to four-year-old Molly. Danson will be Hank Larsson, the sheriff of Rock County, Minnesota. An unflappable World War II vet who embodies a certain cowboy poetry, Hank is Lou’s father-in-law.
Parks And Recreation star Offerman is Karl Weathers, the town lawyer of Luverne, Minnesota. A Korean War vet, Karl is a flowery drunk blessed with the gift of gab and the eloquence of a true con artist. Smart, finally, is set as Floyd Gerhardt, the matriarch of the Gerhardt crime family. She’s stood by her husband’s side for 40 years, but now that he’s out of the picture she thinks it’s her turn to run things. Brad Garrett, Kieran Culkin, Jeffrey Donovan and Bokeem Woodbine are also all aboard.
They join Dunst and Plemons, who are set as Peggy Blomquist, a woman with big-city dreams and a yearning to change her life, while her butcher’s assistant husband Ed wants to support her new-found desire for self-discovery, but isn’t sure how to show it. Noah Hawley, who crafted the first season, is back for this one, with shooting planned for this month and a late 2015 airdate pencilled in.