Dark Winds
I have been extremely impressed with the performance of Dark Winds on Netflix, where the AMC show was added to the service on August 19, and three weeks later, it has remained inside the top 10, currently at #8 as we speak. While many AMC shows have done well there, this has outperformed all the other ones that were just added, including Anne Rice’s collection of witches and vampires.
Dark Winds has run for two seasons and no doubt fans are wondering if it’s going to be back for more. Well, there’s promising news on that front in that yes, it’s supposed to return for season 3.
This was announced a full year ago, though if you missed this message with the show’s pretty low profile at the time, I wouldn’t blame you, and nothing has changed as of yet, it seems. Here’s the official announcement:
“We started this journey with very high hopes for this series, given the remarkable source material and extraordinary creative team behind it, and it has delivered on every level,” said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks. “From the beloved novels, to an incredibly collaborative producing team that includes Robert Redford, George R. R. Martin, showrunner John Wirth and star Zahn McClarnon, to the entire cast and crew, there is so much storytelling yet to come in this universe. Thanks to the fans for embracing this series and the critics for celebrating and shining a light on it.”
Dark Winds
The show has been excellently received, currently with a 100% perfect score among critics across both of its seasons, one of the only such new series on TV right now with those high marks. The only bad news in this situation is that the third season will be spaced a lot further out than the first two were. The current target release dates is in early 2025, where season 1 premiered in June 2022 and season 2 was in July 2023, just a year later. Heading into 2025, that will be closer to two years this time around, and I’m not quite sure what the delay is. It might be star Zahn McClarnon who has appeared in loads of shows and movies as of late, from Marvel’s Echo to Jennifer Lawrence’s No Hard Feelings. And his run on the stellar Reservation Dogs just ended.
One problem, however, is that we do not know how long it might take for the show to air on AMC compared to when it gets transferred to Netflix. Again, that took about a full year after it aired, so is it really going to be three years between seasons if you’re watching on Netflix compared to when season 2 ended? That wouldn’t be great.
There is further good news in the sense that if AMC wants, Dark Winds can effectively run forever. The series is based on a series of detective novels by Tony Hillerman (who died in 2008), and there are 18 books. Actually, there are 27 books, because the series was continued by his daughter after his death. Endless content to adapt, in other words. I don’t know how many seasons this will run, but as a low budget, highly scored, Netflix licensing success, my guess is a lot. I just hope it doesn’t take forever to get here.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
