Patrick Wilson, Ted Danson and Jean Smart join ‘Fargo’s’ second season

Patrick Wilson, Ted Danson and Jean Smart are the latest cast additions to the upcoming second season of FX’s hit series “Fargo.”

Wilson will play the younger version of Lou Solverson, the character played by Keith Carradine in the show’s first season. The new season will take place during the 1970s, when Solverson was a Minnesota state patrolman.

Danson will play a county sheriff and World War II vet and Smart will play the matriarch of a powerful Minnesota crime family assuming the seat of power now that her husband is dying.

Supporting performers in the new season will include Nick Offerman, Brad Garrett, Kieran Culkin, Bokeem Woodbine, Jeffrey Donovan and Angus Sampson.

The performers will join the previously announced pair of Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, who will play a young couple struggling with the wife’s desire to change her life circumstances.

Noah Hawley, who wrote the first season, will return to write the 10-episode second season that begins production in Alberta, Canada on Jan. 19.

Joel and Ethan Coen, who wrote and directed the original “Fargo” film in 1996, will return as executive producers along with Warren Littlefield and John Cameron.

The new season will follow a notable period early in Solverson’s career as a policeman when he investigated a case between a local crime gang and a mob syndicate.

The series, which is nominated for five Golden Globes at Sunday’s awards, will return to FX in the fall.

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