Mary Elizabeth Winstead Joins FX's FARGO For Season 3

Noah Hawley's Fargo is one of my favorite shows on television, and I think Mary Elizabeth Winstead is one of the most underrated actresses of her generation, so I was thrilled to hear that she's been cast in the upcoming third season of the FX drama. From EW:

Winstead will play “Nikki Swango,” a “crafty and alluring recent parolee with a passion for competitive bridge playing. Nikki is a woman with a plan, focused on always being at least one move ahead of her opponents.”

THR says Winstead will be able to star in the show as long as filming doesn't conflict with a possible second season of her CBS political series BrainDead, but I think the prevailing wisdom is that BrainDead seems unlikely to secure a second season anyway, so she'll probably be good to go here. She joins Ewan McGregor and The Leftovers' Carrie Coon as the major stars of season 3, which is set around 2010 (a few years after season one). McGregor will play twin brothers (read more about those characters here), while Coon will play "Gloria Burgle, the chief of the Eden Valley Police, and a newly divorced mother, who is struggling to understand this new world around her where people connect more intimately with their phones than the people right in front of them."

It's still unclear if the show will directly tie into the events of season one, but since both seasons have followed a member of the Solverson family, it stands to reason that there would at least be some connection to that family in season three. We'll find out when the show returns to FX sometime next year.