‘Hap and Leonard’ Back for Season Two on SundanceTV

SundanceTV has renewed Hap and Leonard, which it describes as a “darkly comic swamp noir story” about two friends, a white guy from rural Texas and a gay, black Vietnam vet with a temper. Based on the novels by Joe R. Lansdale, the series was developed by Jim Mickle and Nick Damici, with the first season following the first Hap and Leonard book, Savage Season

The second season will take inspiration from Mucho Mojo, the second installment of the series, and will return for six episodes in 2017. John Wirth (Hell on Wheels, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) will join as showrunner and executive producer, with Mickle, Damici, Jeremy Platt, Linda Moran and Nick Shumaker returning as executive producers.

James Purefoy and Michael Kenneth Williams play the leads, and Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks is in the cast as well.

"We’re thrilled to be bringing Hap and Leonard back for another season with these completely unique characters," said Joel Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV. “James, Michael and the creative and production team did a superb job bringing Joe Lansdale’s characters to life in Season 1, and Sundance viewers responded accordingly. We can’t wait to see what the boys get up to in Season 2.”

The show was the top rated original series in network history, averaging close to 500,000 viewers in Live+7, according to Nielsen.

Hap and Leonard is produced by AMC Studios.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.