The next group of stars to be banished to the frozen wilderness of Fargo has finally been confirmed, as FX has announced that Patrick Wilson, Ted Danson, Nick Offerman, Brad Garrett, and Jean Smart will all join the previously announced Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst in the second season of its Coen Brothers pastiche. Wilson takes the starring role of Lou Solverson, the younger version of Keith Carradine’s retired detective, who returns from Vietnam in 1979 to investigaterson a crimerson involving the moberson. Danson will play his father-in-law, Sheriff Hank Larsson, who’s described in the press release as embodying “a certain cowboy poetry,” such as the one about horses. The women who will link them— Solverson’s wife Betsy, and the 4-year-old version of Allison Tolman’s Molly—have yet to be cast. It’s unknown what kind of poetry they’re like.
As previously rumored, Offerman will take on the appropriately burly role of Karl Weathers (so named as to avoid trademark infringement on Carl Weathers), a local lawyer whom the press release deems “a flowery drunk”—a reference to his “gift for gab” and, presumably, piquant bouquet of scotch sweat. Those making their bid this year for Billy Bob Thornton-style career reinvention as terrifying criminals include Garrett as Joe Bulo, “the new face of corporate crime” who’s looking to expand his syndicate, Walmart-style, and Jean Smart as Floyd Gerhardt, the matriarch of the local crime family he’ll butt massive heads with. Garrett will be assisted in those endeavors by an enforcer played by Bokeem Woodbine, whose Wikipedia filmography suggests he probably won’t live very long.
Rounding out the cast are Jeffrey Donovan, Angus Sampson, and Kieran Culkin as Smart’s eldest, middle, and youngest sons, respectively—each with their own respective beliefs for why they deserve to be in charge of the family business, each with their own problems that demonstrate why they don’t. It’s not mentioned specifically how their ensuing mob war will involve Dunst’s small-town beautician with big-city dreams or Plemons as her doting butcher husband, but you know, finding that out is sort of the point of watching the TV show in the first place. You’ll be able to do that beginning next fall on FX.