‘Dark Winds’ Renewed for Season 2 by AMC Networks

Dark Winds Star Zahn McClarnon
Zahn McClarnon as Joe Leaphorn in ‘Dark Winds’ (Photo Credit: Michael Moriatis / Stalwart Productions / AMC)

Zahn McClarnon will reprise his role as Joe Leaphorn and Kiowa Gordon will return as Jim Chee for a second season of AMC’s popular Dark Winds dramatic series. AMC Networks confirmed the renewal and announced season two is expected to consist of six episodes premiering next year.

Dark Winds‘ first episode was watched by 2.2 million viewers on AMC, and the show is now the top new series in AMC+’s history. Season one of the Western noir crime thriller premiered on June 12, 2022 and sits at 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

The series is based on the Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee book series, with season one following the events of The Listening Woman along with a little from People of Darkness. Graham Roland (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) created the series and serves as executive producer along with series star Zahn McClarnon, Robert Redford, George R.R. Martin, Anne Hillerman, Chris Eyre, Vince Calandra, Vince Gerardis, and Tina Elmo.

“This once-in-a-lifetime creative team and cast have delivered something truly special with Dark Winds,” stated 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.”

AMC Networks is dedicated to authentically bringing Hillerman’s novels to the screen and collaborated with the Navajo Nation on the series. Per AMC: “With special permission, 70% of Dark Winds was filmed on tribal lands at Tesuque Pueblo in New Mexico, using their facility Camel Rock Studios. Another 30% of the series was filmed on tribal lands at Cochiti Pueblo, also in New Mexico.”

The season one plot:

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 closer he digs to the truth, the more he exposes the wounds of his past. He is joined on this journey by his new deputy, Jim Chee. Chee, too, has old scores to settle from his youth on the reservation. Together, the two men battle the forces of evil, each other and their own personal demons on the path to salvation.