A little over a week after its premiere on AMC and AMC+, Dark Winds has been renewed for six-episode Season 2.
Based on the Leaphorn & Chee book series by Tony Hillerman and set in 1971 on a remote outpost of the Navajo Nation near Monument Valley, Dark Winds follows Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (played by Fargo‘s Zahn McClarnon) of the Tribal Police as he is besieged by a series of seemingly unrelated crimes. He is joined on this journey by his new deputy, Jim Chee (Roswell, New Mexico‘s Kiowa Gordon), who has old scores to settle from his youth on the reservation. Together, the two men battle the forces of evil, each other and their own personal demons on the path to salvation.
The cast also includes Jessica Matten (Tribal, Burden of Truth) as Bernadette Manuelito.
“This once-in-a-lifetime creative team and cast have delivered something truly special with Dark Winds,” AMC Studios entertainment president Dan McDermott said in a statement. “We can’t wait to share the rest of this thrill ride of a first season with the fans and follow Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee into a second season on AMC and AMC+ next year.
“Overwhelming gratitude to our entire production team and a special thanks to executive producers Robert Redford, George R.R. Martin, Chris Eyre and of course Zahn McClarnon, who also leads the cast and brings humanity, authority and the wisdom of richly lived experiences to everything he does,” McDermott added.
Dark Winds as a television series has been a project 35 years in the making, ever since Redford optioned Hillerman’s book collection more than three decades ago. The first season, currently releasing new episodes every Sunday, focuses primarily on the book The Listening Woman, with elements of People of Darkness.
The production has worked closely with the Navajo Nation, filmed 70 percent on tribal lands at Tesuque Pueblo in New Mexico, using their facility Camel Rock Studios, and another 30 percent on tribal lands at Cochiti Pueblo.