“35 years is a long time to try to get something made,” Dark Winds creator, writer, and executive producer Graham Roland said during a TCA press conference to promote the new AMC series. Based on Tony Hillerman’s popular Leaphorn & Chee book series, Robert Redford has had the film rights for three-and-a-half decades. “It shows the passion that Robert Redford had for this project and the importance he thought of getting a story like this put in front of a mainstream audience. A lot of credit goes to him for keeping up that fight for so long.”
(AMC)
A murder mystery set around the lands of the Navajo Nation in Monument Valley, the series commits to authenticity both in front of and behind the camera. “Our writers’ room was comprised of Native American writers, three of which were Navajo,” revealed director and executive producer Chris Eyre. “We have the Navajo Nation president as a supporter, Navajo consultant.”
The cast is headlined by Zahn McClarnon, who also makes his executive producer debut on the series. “Joe Leaphorn is a Navajo tribal cop who is tasked to solve these double murders and also a bank robbery,” Zahn shared about his character. “He’s dealing with straddling that fence between his job and his culture. In Indigenous communities a lot of time the tribal cops are kind of shunned or pushed away. The community’s not always on board with them. Also, Joe struggled with loss as well with a family member, so he’s juggling all these things at one time and he has to appease everybody on the reservation and he also has to appease working with the FBI.”
“I met Zahn back in 2013,” revealed Kiowa Gordon, who plays Jim Chee. “We were working on The Red Road for Sundance TV and he immediately was just like the coolest guy ever. And I was taking a liking to him and I followed his career throughout there. And he’s been a huge inspiration for me, so it's great to be able to work with him in such a capacity.”
While many of the stars had worked together before, there were a few exceptions. “I don’t get star-struck by anyone, but meeting Rainn Wilson was a very big deal to me,” recalled Jessica Matten, who plays Bernadette Manuelito. “I wasn’t shooting any scenes with him on a particular week that he was in town, so I drove almost two hours to set… I showed up and of course I caught him when he’s mid-eating a granola bar and his mouth is hanging open.” Jessica told Rainn how much she admired his work, referring to him as the “Beyoncé of my life.”
“First time I’ve been compared to Beyoncé,” Rainn Wilson laughed. “I’ve never played a character like Devoted Dan before… He’s a car dealer, and a double-dealer, and a born-again, and a preacher, and wherever there’s corruption happening around, you’ll find Devoted Dan right in the middle of it. It’s a supporting role, but it was just super-fun, ‘70s New Mexico. I asked for the largest cowboy hat they could find and it dwarfed my already enormous head. But super-fun character; hope we get to see more of him in some way, shape, or form down the line, and thrilled to be a part of this incredible project.”
“I was just so grateful to be a part of this, to work with all these actors that I didn’t know, to be part of a project that is so fundamental in bringing unheard voices to light in our culture that have not been recognized, that have not been paid attention to, that Hollywood has sort of reduced and presented cliché,” added Noah Emmerich, who plays Special Agent Whitover. “This is a full, three-dimensional examination of these characters and I just was grateful to be the outsider, to be the minority. It was a new experience. It was an enriching experience. It was an eye-opening experience. I just am grateful to be part of it.”
Don’t miss Dark Winds premiering tonight at 9/8c on AMC and streaming on AMC+.