'Fargo' gets a new face: Chris Rock will star as mob boss in season four

Actor and comedian Chris Rock
Actor and comedian Chris Rock performs his stand-up comedy routine in Las Vegas, N.V.
Ethan Miller | Getty Images 2017

Chris Rock, let us know if you need help parka shopping.

The comedian will star in the fourth season of the "Fargo" television show, which was adapted from the Coen brothers' 1996 film.

The casting news was announced Friday, according to Variety.

In its first three seasons, the murderous Midwest anthology show bounced around, wreaking havoc across Minnesota — in Bemidji, Duluth, Luverne, St. Cloud, Eden Valley and more. The Dakotas were also tied up in the show's mayhem. With the show's body count came an award count, too: "Fargo" has won five Emmy Awards.

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Each season has delivered a distinct set of characters, with occasional overlaps for keen-eyed viewers. Rock is joining an impressive line of actors who have previously starred in the series, including Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Kirsten Dunst, Patrick Wilson, Ewan McGregor, Bokeem Woodbine, Ted Danson and more.

Like the show's second season, which sent viewers back to the 70s, the new season of "Fargo" will be a time trip. For season four, show creator Noah Hawley has set his sights on the 1950s.

The FX network, which airs the series, provided a synopsis of the new, twisted plot. This time, the chaos will likely unfold far outside the Minnesota borders. Look out, Missouri.

From Rolling Stone:

"In 1950, at the end of two great American migrations — that of Southern Europeans from countries like Italy, who came to the US at the turn of the last century and settled in northern cities like New York, Chicago — and African Americans who left the south in great numbers to escape Jim Crow and moved to those same cities — you saw a collision of outsiders, all fighting for a piece of the American dream. In Kansas City, Missouri, two criminal syndicates have struck an uneasy peace. One Italian, one African American. Together they control an alternate economy — that of exploitation, graft and drugs. This too is the history of America. To cement their peace, the heads of both families have traded their eldest sons.

Chris Rock plays the head of one family, a man who — in order to prosper — has surrendered his oldest boy to his enemy, and who must in turn raise his son's enemy as his own. It's an uneasy peace, but profitable. And then the head of the Kansas City mafia goes into the hospital for routine surgery and dies. And everything changes. It's a story of immigration and assimilation, and the things we do for money. And as always, a story of basically decent people who are probably in over their heads. You know, Fargo."

The show will begin filming in 2019. Filming on the previous seasons also took place outside of the Minnesota borders. "Fargo" shoots in Canada.