Noah Hawley wasn’t entirely sure how the fifth season of Fargo would end — even as he began to write it. At that point in the series, Dot Lyon (Juno Temple) had persevered through several life-threatening ordeals and at last is at home with her family when Ole Munch (Sam Spruell) — a criminal for hire who’s also a centuries-old sin eater — shows up at her house to collect on a debt he believes she owes him.
“When I sat down to write that final sequence, it wasn’t my plan that it would go the way that it went,” Hawley tells THR. “I assumed that Munch would show up at her house, and it would become one final, tense set piece. Then I thought, ‘Well, that’s his scene. What if she refuses to be in his scene? What if she forces him to be in her scene? Her scene is, it’s halfway to dinner and it’s a school night.’ The moment that happened, it was truly exciting, because I really didn’t know what was going to happen.”
What do you think resonated with audiences this season?
It was the right story for the moment. [The show is] wrestling with a state of affairs in this country, in real time, but we’re doing it with a positive attitude. The fact that Dot never gives up, the fact that she is a creative problem-solver, the fact that she’s a glass-half-full person — those qualities gave people a sense of playfulness in a moment in our country that feels less than playful. It didn’t shy away from hard conversations. It didn’t pretend the world is a rosy place; it grappled with serious issues. But it did so with spirit, and she showed a lot of heart. I always describe Fargo as a tragedy with a happy ending, and I think people want that happy ending now.
You’ve brought in supernatural elements in a couple of seasons, including Munch being 500 years old in this one. How do you find your way doing that without tipping things too much out of the realistic realm?
Some of it is instinct, and I’m not sure I’ve been 100 percent right. I don’t necessarily know that the show could support the ghost story I had in season four, mostly because horror requires a constant state of dread that the show doesn’t sustain. I always go back to the Coens’ work, and they have these elemental figures in their movies, from the Lone Biker of the Apocalypse [Raising Arizona], to Anton Chigurh [No Country for Old Men], to the dybbuk at the beginning of A Serious Man. They had a UFO in The Man Who Wasn’t There, so I feel like they’re grappling with supernatural elements as well. What I liked in exploring the theme of debt, which the season revolves around, was the ultimate act of capitalism that happened in the 1500s and 1600s, which was sin eating, where a rich man could pay a poor man to basically eat his sins so he could go to heaven and the poor man will go to hell, which seemed like the ultimate cynical act. But the only way to do it, since it’s not a modern thing, was to have Sam’s character be much, much older. When you play with elements like that, if you’re not doing it as a gimmick, it also deepens the story and turns him into a more tragic figure than just a villain.
You’ve done several ongoing series as well as this anthology that’s now spanned 10 years of your life. I’m assuming with Alien: Earth [the prequel to the 1979 film he’s showrunning], the intent is to go past one season …
It could be the next 10 years of my life, for sure.
Is Alien still on track for 2025?
We just wrapped. I’m in post, editing away. Obviously, there’s a large visual effects component that takes time. But I couldn’t be happier with the show that we shot. If people wanted a television series based on the world of Alien, I think I’m going to give them something special.
Have you turned any thoughts toward another season of Fargo?
I have had some thoughts about it. I feel like there’s another story that’s intriguing to me. I don’t know what to say about it, other than I feel like I have something I can develop and work on. But given the priority that Alien is for FX, I don’t have a sense of when we might make another one.
In that regard, is the relationship you have with FX sort of like, if you have an idea you think you can see through, they’ll take it?
Well, it’s worked out for them so far. We have 70 Emmy nominations over five seasons. I think the success of this year is certainly a strong argument to make more.
This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
