FX and Hulu have just confirmed that Reservation Dogs will end with season 3, which is set to debut in August. The series creator, Sterlin Harjo, also confirmed the news via an Instagram post earlier today, stating that it is ending Reservation Dogs is the “correct decision, creatively” for the show and its crew. In explaining the decision, Harjo noted that his mission in creating the FX series was to showcase Indigenous American culture and that he’s grateful for having had the occasion to do.
Sterlin Harjo Calls Ending Reservation Dogs ‘The Correct Decision, Creatively
Reservation Dogs was renewed for a third season in September 2022, and series creators Sterlin Harlo and Taika Waititi have announced that the third season will be the show’s last. In an Instagram post, Harjo admitted that the news was “a hard line to write and a more difficult decision to make”, but that it was “the correct decision creatively” for the crew of Reservation Dogs.
“I always knew what the end of this story would be, I just didn’t know when it would arrive,” Harjo said, according to Variety. “As we continued to break stories and write scripts this season, it became clear to the producers, Taika, and me that the season three finale is the perfect series finale.”
Later on in the same statement – which can be found in full below – Harjo explains that he “didn’t ever think [Reservation Dogs] would ever get made,” but that he’s thankful for the opportunity to “show the world that Native humor and Natives are funny.” He attributes the show’s development to the fact that “almost all television and film depictions about Natives are mostly inaccurate” and “untruthful.”
“It has been a gift for us to show the world a different perspective on Indigenous people and our culture,” Harjo states.
In their statement, FX called Reservation Dogs “one of the most important TV shows ever made” and confirmed that Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi, and fellow producer Garrett Basch would remain with FX for future projects. Waititi and Basch are involved with Our Flag Means Death and What We Do in the Shadows, respectively.
Premiering in August 2021, Reservation Dogs is a coming-of-age story that follows four Indigenous teens living on a reservation in rural Oklahoma. Elora Danan Postoak (Devery Jacobs), Bear Smallhill (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Chester “Cheese” Williams (Lane Factor), and Wilhelmina “Willie Jack” Jacqueline Sampson (Paulina Alexis) are all struggling after the death of their friend, Daniel, one year before the events of the series. Aiming to raise enough money to travel to California, the teens spend most of season 1 pulling together the funds for their journey while “tying up loose ends” with their friends and family on the reservation. Season 2 of Reservation Dogs, which premiered in August 2022, finds the Rez Dogs scattered between Oklahoma and California with bigger challenges ahead, though they reunited in the end.
Reservation Dogs season 3 will premiere on Hulu on August 2nd.