Far Cry FX series adds Brendan Gleeson and Jennifer Jason Leigh to its cast — and the Fargo creator won't follow the games
Every prestige-TV cycle has its bat-signal, and this week's is Noah Hawley quietly assembling a cast list that reads like an awards-season seating chart. His Far Cry series at FX just added five names, and at least two of them made me put down my coffee.
Brendan Gleeson and Jennifer Jason Leigh are boarding the show, along with Hamish Linklater, Sam Spruell, and Jamie Demetriou. For a video game adaptation. Sure! Why not! It's 2026 and the games are where the actors are.
The guest list, because it's a good one
- Brendan Gleeson, an Emmy winner and a man who can menace you with a sigh
- Jennifer Jason Leigh, fresh off ruling Fargo season 5 as Lorraine Lyon, reporting back to the Hawley extended universe
- Hamish Linklater, another Hawley repertory player (Legion heads, rise)
- Sam Spruell, who played Fargo's unkillable sin-eater Ole Munch and apparently can't quit this man either
- Jamie Demetriou, BAFTA-winning king of cringe
They join Rob Mac — yes, the Always Sunny one, who co-created the series and stars — plus Lizzy Caplan and Steve Buscemi. That is not a cast, that's a heist crew.
About those games
Here's the part that will either delight you or send you to the comments: Hawley is not adapting any of them. He's said as much, plainly: "I'm not specifically adapting any of the games that they've put out." His pitch to Ubisoft was essentially, let me have a dialog with this franchise, because this is what I think a Far Cry story is.
"Games are built in a way that doesn't make for the best drama," per Hawley — cutscene-to-gameplay whiplash being, in his words, "death for a show."
The structure survives, though: it's an anthology, new setting and new cast every season, exactly like the games themselves, which have been resetting the board since forever — new island, new mountain range, new charismatic cult daddy. So a Far Cry show that ignores the Far Cry plots is, somehow, the most faithful Far Cry adaptation possible. No premiere date yet, which gives you plenty of time to argue about it.
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