“The history of America is the history of the entrepreneur. It’s the person that starts with nothing and gets to some place and then fights to hold on to it. I don’t know the world of stand-up comedy, [but] it felt to me like Chris Rock embodied that spirit. Plus, he’s funny.”
That’s how Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley described season four of his FX anthology to reporters Thursday afternoon at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, where he was there — alongside stars Rock, Jason Schwartzman and Ben Whishaw (among others) — to promote his award-winning drama.
Season four — the trailer for which dropped Thursday ahead of the show’s TCA panel — will tell a story of immigration and assimilation, and the things people do for money. Set in 1950, season four of Fargo sees Rock’s Loy Cannon and his family battle Schwartzman’s Josto Fadda and his Italian crime family (with Irish and Jewish roots) for control of Kansas City.
Hawley told reporters that he met with Rock early on in the process — before there was a script — and pitched him the season. “He signed on immediately and it was four or five months before he saw the script,” Hawley said, noting that was a change from how he typically approaches the casting process.
Rock, who was a big fan of the first three seasons of Fargo, was asked if there are elements in Fargo that he would take on in his stand-up act, and he delivered the best line of FX’s jam-packed TCA day: “I’ve obviously talked about race. Racism’s been very good to me,” he quipped.
Fargo season four, co-starring Jessie Buckley and E’myri Crutchfield, debuts April 19 at 10 p.m. on FX and on Hulu the following day. Watch the trailer below.
