“It’s difficult to say goodbye to these indelible characters,” the network said of the creators’ decision
The upcoming third season of acclaimed FX series Reservation Dogs will serve as the show’s last. The creatives behind the series, Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi, and Garrett Basch, confirmed the news ahead of the premiere of the third season, set to air with two episodes August 2 on Hulu.
In his announcement, Harjo called the move the “correct decision creatively for the show.”
“I always knew what the end of this story would be, I just didn’t know when it would arrive,” Harjo wrote on Instagram. “As we continued to break stories and write scripts this season, it became clear to the producers, Taika and me that the season three finale is the perfect series finale.”
“People throw around the words historic and groundbreaking far too often and without merit: Reservation Dogs is worthy of those superlatives,” FX said in a statement following the announcement. “Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi created one of the most important TV shows ever made. They gave the world a wholly unique, original, and honest portrayal of Native people—one that has never before been seen in television or film.”
The studio continued, “It’s difficult to say goodbye to these indelible characters and to an award-winning series that The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Variety and Vulture named The Best Show of 2022. That said, we support Sterlin and Taika’s decision to end the series in a way that will cement its legacy. We, along with our partners at Hulu, are forever grateful to the producers, writers, directors, cast, crew and the Native land and communities in eastern Oklahoma who collaborated to make this masterpiece. While we’re sad to see the show come to an end, we’re excited for Sterlin, Taika and Garrett Basch to continue to tell stories for FX. And Rez Dogs fans, we hope you share our excitement and anticipation for the coming season.”
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Reservation Dogs initially premiered in 2021. The series follows four Indigenous North American teens, Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Elora Danan (Devery Jacobs), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis), and Cheese (Lane Factor), living in rural Oklahoma. All of the series regulars, writers, and directors are Indigenous. In a review of the initial season, Rolling Stone‘s Alan Sepinwall wrote, “A show like Reservation Dogs feels long overdue. And this exact show? It’s awfully good, even if its heroes are bad at being bad.”
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A second season of the series followed last year with 10 episodes, and the third season will wrap up the characters’ storylines with episodes airing in August and September.
Last year, Waititi, spoke about the impact of the show, telling Deadline, “We just want to show people that our cultures are alive and thriving. We are still here. We’re not just relegated to these images that you see in other movies and Westerns, where people assume Native Americans wear traditional clothes and ride horses and fight cowboys. That’s just one tiny part of a people’s history. It’s way richer than that.”
