Entertainment
‘Dark Winds’ Season 5 Officially Sets Up Jessica Matten’s “Career-High Performance” [Exclusive]
The Dark Winds are blowing in for another season of AMC’s acclaimed 1970s-set neo-noir mystery series. Jessica Matten, who stars on the series as Bernadette “Bernie” Manuelito, is hyping up the new season, with one particular scene serving as a “career high” for the actor. Collider’s Perri Nemiroff caught up with Matten at San Diego Comic Con, where she’s promoting her new animated movie, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender.
Based on the Southwest-set novels of the late Tony Hillerman, Dark Winds follows a trio of Navajo Tribal Police officers in the 1970s; veteran Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), his longtime deputy Manuelito (Matten), and newcomer Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon). Over the course of the show’s four seasons, the initial rivalry between Manuelito and Chee has turned to romance; having endured a bout of “ghost sickness” and a life-or-death battle with a lethal survivalist assassin in the last season, their relationship has only become stronger. That’s set to continue in the show’s fifth season.
It won’t be too long before that new season hits AMC, as Matten reveals that season 5 is now in the can, having wrapped shooting last month. And while she can’t say much about the upcoming season’s plot, she can reveal that the new season was a personal milestone for herself, and gave her an experience she’d never had before as an actor:
“The producers pulled me aside, and they said they think it’s a career-high performance for me in Season 5. I’m very good as an actor at separating my personal life from the characters I play, and I have a lot of coping techniques for that, and it was the first time where those lines really did get blurred. You hear about it so many times through other performers and how they couldn’t shake off a character. I’m a little tough about it. I’m like, “I’ll just shake it off. It’s fine.” And I experienced for the first time what they were talking about. So, I will say it’s so not characteristic of who I am as a performer, going into Season 5.”
And although the series is now in its fifth season, Matten isn’t experiencing any fatigue. She’s grateful that the show exists as a space for Indigenous actors and creators to tell their stories, beyond the confines of a conventional detective series.
“Because we’ve been running for so long, you think you know these characters, and so it was surprising for me to say that, being like, “Oh, I did not expect this,” especially for Dark Winds. But I’m really grateful because, with it being one of the few Indigenous shows out there, globally seen and acknowledged, it’s a big deal for me. And to be able, as an actor, to play a role with so many layers, I think it’s going to be something. I think all of my costars are doing an incredible job of also showing the different many facets and the layers of the human soul, just being a Native person, or a person, a human being, in general.”
Season 5 of Dark Winds will premiere on AMC in 2027.
What Is ‘Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender’?
A continuation of the acclaimed animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar Aang is set thirteen years after that series’ finale, and sees Aang (Eric Nam), a man with the ability to control the element of air who believed he was the last of his kind, discover a long-lost fellow airbender in the form of Tagah (Dave Bautista). Learning of a powerful staff that could restore the airbender’s lost culture, his old friends, including Katara (Matten), Sokka (Román Zaragoza), Toph (Dionne Quan), and Zuko (Steven Yeun) unite to aid him in his quest, even as the sinister organization known as The Denied seeks it for their own evil ends. It will debut exclusively on Paramount+ on July 25.
Season 5 of Dark Winds will premiere in 2027. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
- Release Date
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June 12, 2022
- Network
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AMC
- Directors
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Michael Nankin
- Writers
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John Wirth, Steven Judd, Max Hurwitz, Rhiana Yazzie, Thomas Brady, DezBaa’
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