AMC Networks Renews Dark Winds

AMC Networks has ordered a second season of the Western noir crime thriller Dark Winds, which debuted June 12.

Produced by AMC Studios, the six-episode second season will arrive on AMC+ and AMC next year. Set in 1971 on a remote outpost of the Navajo Nation near Monument Valley, Dark Winds follows Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn of the Tribal Police as he is besieged by a series of seemingly unrelated crimes.

The show is created and executive produced by Graham Roland (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Returned, Almost Human, Fringe). The series is based on the iconic Leaphorn & Chee book series by Tony Hillerman.

Dark Winds as a series has been a project 35 years in the making. Robert Redford optioned Hillerman’s book collection more than three decades ago, and the series, whose first season focuses primarily on the book The Listening Woman, with elements of People of Darkness, found a home on AMC+ and AMC.

The production worked closely with the Navajo Nation. With special permission, 70 percent of Dark Winds was filmed on tribal lands at Tesuque Pueblo in New Mexico, using their facility Camel Rock Studios. Another 30 percent of the series was filmed on tribal lands at Cochiti Pueblo, also in New Mexico.

“This once-in-a-lifetime creative team and cast have delivered something truly special with Dark Winds,” said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks. “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.”