Patrick Wilson, Ted Danson, Jean Smart join 'Fargo'
FX's Fargo has reloaded with new cast members, including Patrick Wilson and Emmy winners Ted Danson and Jean Smart.
Wilson (Angels in America) will star as Lou Solverson in the second edition of the "true crime" miniseries, which is set in 1979 in Sioux Falls, S.D., and Luverne, Minn.
Lou is the younger version of the character played by Keith Carradine in the first miniseries, which featured Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman and was inspired by the acclaimed film.
The actors will join Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, whose casting had been announced.
In the new story, Wilson's Lou is "a clean-cut Minnesota State Patrolman, four years back from Vietnam, where he served in the Navy," according to the FX casting announcement.
He has a wife, Betsy, and a 4-year-old daughter, Molly, although those roles remain to be cast.
Danson (CSI, Cheers) will play Rock County, Minn., sherriff Hank Larsson, Lou's father-in-law and a World War II veteran. Smart (Designing Women, 24) will portray Floyd Gerhardt, "the matriarch of the Gerhardt crime family" who sees her chance to run things now that her husband is out of the picture.
Other cast members include Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation), Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond), Bokeem Woodbine (Saving Grace, Ray), Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice), Angus Sampson (Insidious) and Kieran Culkin (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World).
In the new season, Lou, with the help of his father-in-law, will investigate a case involving local criminals and a major Mob syndicate. Their investigation will lead them to an assortment of characters, including Luverne town lawyer Karl Weathers (Offerman), "a flowery drunk blessed with the gift of gab;" Joe Bulo (Garrett), who represents a Kansas City crime syndicate; and Joe's lieutenant, Mike Milligan (Woodbine).
Bulo is going after the Gerhardt crime family, which includes Floyd and her sons, hothead Dodd (Donovan); the hulking, inarticulate Bear (Sampson); and the youngest, Rye (Culkin), who thinks he is a big shot.
Production of the 10-episode season begins Jan. 19 in Calgary, with the premiere planned for the fall.
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