AMC’s Dark Winds grew its viewership (gaining more exposure on Netflix didn’t hurt) for the third season of the stellar crime drama. As inspired by Tony Hillerman’s Sinister Pig and Dance Hall of the Dead novels, the series leaned hard into horror as Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) grappled with a mythological monster while tackling a case of two missing Navajo boys. Meanwhile, he was still feeling domino effects from his son’s death and his subsequent handling of the B.J. Vines situation, which was causing untenable friction at home with wife Emma (Deanna Allison).
After an eventful season finale, at least Leaphorn can consider himself freed of the B.J. Vines investigation, although his marriage appears to be a permanent casualty. Meanwhile, that Border Patrol gig for Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) did not go as planned, and she resurfaced at the Navajo reservation, a development that sets up more questions regarding herself and Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon). Plenty more Hillerman stories about these characters are also waiting to be told, so of course that opens up a pressing question.
Will There Be A Dark Winds Season 4?
For sure. Variety first broke the news of AMC running with a renewal back in March ahead of the third season premiere. Zahn McClarnon will debut as director for the forth season premiere, and George R.R. Martin will surely remain thrilled about his most satisfying TV producing gig in several years.
The next season will be based upon Tony Hillerman’s The Ghostway novel, and showrunner John Wirth revealed to Collider that another Navajo cultural tradition will come to the forefront:
It deals with the Navajo experience of ghost sickness, which has to do with what happens to a person, in their tradition, if they are exposed to a dead body or if they’re with a person when the person dies. I’m not a Navajo, and I’m not an expert in all things Navajo, but my understanding is, if you are with a person when they breathe their last breath, that breath goes into you, and you become ghost sick, which requires a ceremony to cure you of ghost sickness.”
The fourth season is currently in the thick of filming with McClarnon telling Variety that he has “already done my director’s cut for the [premiere] episode.” Fingers crossed for a 2026 return of Dark Winds.