FX Renews ‘Fargo’ for a Third Installment

Noah Hawley’s FX dance card is getting awfully full. The prolific showrunner, currently under an overall deal with FX Productions, is now set to tackle a third season of his critically cherished Fargo anthology.

The cable network announced the order Monday, as the series heads into the second half of its sophomore run. It comes as little surprise. The first go of Fargo, in 2014, earned 18 Emmy nominations and three wins. And the second season currently ranks as the most-acclaimed series of 2015, per review aggregate Metacritic, averaging a score of 96 out of 100.

Loosely based on the Joel and Ethan Coen’s landmark 1996 film of the same name, Fargo is produced by MGM Television and FX Productions and executive produced by Hawley, the Coens, Warren Littlefield and John Cameron.

“Year two of Fargo is an extraordinary achievement and, given Noah Hawley’s masterful storytelling, we can’t wait to see where the third, all-new version of Fargo takes us,” Schrier said along with FX Networks and FX Productions president of programming Eric Schrier, who announced the pickup alongside fellow president Nick Grad. “Our thanks to Noah, Warren, Joel and Ethan, John and our partners at MGM Television for making Fargo such a memorable and rewarding journey.”

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Not the ratings juggernaut that other FX fare has been, like fellow anthology American Horror Story, Fargo does seem to have a very steady and stable audience. The most recent episode averaged 2.6 million viewers, more than 1 million of them adults 18-49, in live-plus-three day returns.

Hawley has his hands full at FX. In addition to the expected return of Fargo, he is also adapting Kurt Vonnegut novel Cat’s Cradle as a limited series and a TV pilot based on Marvel comic Legion. This comes as Hawley approaches the end of his and his 26 Keys shingle’s two-year overall deal with the network.

Fargo’s original season won Emmys for casting, directing and outstanding miniseries. The Hollywood Reporter‘s Tim Goodman praised this latest season, calling it “a very riveting and entertaining dark comedy spectacle.”