“Dark Winds” star Zahn McClarnon gratefully accepts a black raspberry Italian ice in a blazing hot New Mexico parking lot. McClarnon, who plays Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn on the AMC+ series, is previewing for a visiting reporter what’s in store for Season 4, which premieres Feb. 15.
“We changed it up this season. It’s gotten some more action, some deeper mysteries. We’re trying to add some supernatural elements,” he says.
It’s early June and the late afternoon sun is still relentless on the asphalt in downtown Albuquerque, where basecamp is located for the day. It’s even warmer if you’ve just done several takes that involved chasing a ruthless assassin up and down stairs multiple times, as McClarnon just has. (“I’m glistening,’” he quips.) Fortunately, craft services has arranged for fruity ices as a pick-me-up.
The soul of “Dark Winds” is the desert landscape of the Navajo Nation, but for Season 4, Leaphorn, Bernadette (Jessica Matten) and Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) make the drive to Hollywood to pursue a missing teenaged girl.
Today, Albuquerque is doubling for L.A. circa 1972, and in the next scene on the schedule for Episode 6, Franka Potente — the assassin in question — is on a downtown sidewalk talking to Leaphorn on a pay phone. Dressed ominously in brown combat garb with black leather gloves and a hunting knife strapped to her back, the German actress tries several takes as rush hour revs up. Extras sporting afros and ’70s garb walk past Potente, while the crew battles noisy busses to grab a few seconds of footage.
Potente guest-stars this season as the chilling killer Irene Vaggan, who is obsessed with Navajo culture and Leaphorn in particular, while Udo Kier, who died in November, makes one of his final appearances as her evil, yet fading grandfather Gunther.
Franka Potente as Irene Vaggan in Season 4 of “Dark Winds.”
Michael Moriatis/AMC
While Season 3 brought a horror vibe to portraying Joe Leaphorn’s moral and personal dilemmas, Season 4 has its own, almost David Lynchian, style. And this time, it’s Chee who is having a spiritual — and physical — crisis.
“He’s had a lot of unhealed trauma, and so that resurfaces because of this ghost sickness and it manifests in his body,” says Gordon. “He’s more whittled-down and vulnerable this season, and a little more raw.”
Gordon enjoyed having a mini “Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn” reunion this season, reuniting with fellow “Twilight” vet Chaske Spencer, who plays Sonny, a man who loses sight of Native values when he joins up with dangerous criminals in L.A. Gordon says working with Spencer again was “The most fun I’ve had on a set.”
For everyone working on “Dark Winds,” the importance of working on a team with so many Native actors, creatives and crew cannot be overstated. “It’s everything to me,” Gordon says. “It’s crazy, so many people look up to this show because it’s Indigenous-led. It means a lot, because I never thought I could do this growing up, but here I am. People come up to me and they’re like ‘hey man, we’re proud of you, we’re behind you.’ It’s touching.”
That point is echoed by Matten, who plays Chee’s on-and-off-again love interest Bernadette Manuelito. “To be a part of any production running this long is a gift, especially with the current climate of what’s been happening in Hollywood — I feel like we really lucked out,” says Matten, whose Indigenous Film & Arts Academy helps provide opportunities for young Native talent.
Season 4 revolves around the hunt for the teenager who ran away from boarding school, and Matten says Bernadette, who acted out when she was a student at the same school, sees a reflection of herself in the girl. “That’s the driving force of why she feels the need to try and save this person, because she’s essentially trying to save herself,” says Matten.
She promises that Bernadette and Chee will continue to “do their dance” of deciding whether to stay together and work together as tribal officers.
Canadian-born Matten, whose mother has been involved in the movement for missing Indigenous women, values how much the show’s producers are willing to listen to her experiences. “There’s so much freedom and respect amongst our producers and writers and showrunners to have that conversation, to say, based on my experience, you guys should consider this. All ears are open to making it extremely collaborative and making sure it’s authentic and truthful,” she says.
With four seasons in the can and another one already greenlit, “Dark Winds,” which premiered in 2022, has had an unprecedented opportunity to showcase Navajo culture for audiences around the world. Former museum director Manny Wheeler and his wife, English professor and Navajo language expert Jennifer Wheeler, joined as cultural consultants in the third season, and play an integral role in the way scenes are crafted.
“This year we’re in the writers’ room, and we’re giving them notes as they’re developing the story, and it’s just going much smoother,” says Manny Wheeler.
Last season, Episode 6 had a particularly intricate portrayal of the Navajo Hero Twin legend, and “Jennifer was there guiding the process,” says Manny. “Even to things that no one would ever think of, like the colors. There were these two dots that were on the boys’ cheeks. And those boys represented the hero twins. Jennifer is like, ‘You don’t use that color, because those colors are used in a particular Navajo ceremony, that’s something we don’t want to do.’”
Jennifer Wheeler, who led the way with her husband to have “Star Wars” dubbed into Navajo, often fields calls from the actors asking about line readings.
“They all have their strengths in terms of the Navajo language, some take to it easier than others,” says Manny Wheeler. None of the primary actors in the show are originally Navajo, he says, and “It’s a very difficult language.” Jennifer Wheeler also been instrumental in making sure hairstyles are accurate, her husband observes.
Just as important as getting the language and hair right are the costumes and production design, and the show’s base at Camel Rock Studios outside of Santa Fe, N.M., gives the series enough room to stockpile a fascinating archive of the time period.
Walking into Camel Rock is like going back in time. The former casino, which is the only Native-owned movie studio in the country, is packed with racks of Wrangler jeans, vintage police uniforms and colorful ’70s housewares.
Around the side, the former casino facade is now the front of Joe Leaphorn’s workplace, the Kayenta tribal police station, complete with protruding wood beams. The show makes ample use of the large back lot, where the Navajo village seen in the series includes the diner, gas station, Jim Chee’s and Bernadette’s trailers and Leaphorn’s house.
This season, production designer Guy Barnes and his wife, set decorator Wendy Ozols-Barnes, introduced new sets like Vaggan’s bunker, which is layered with a fascinating collection of vintage weapons, oil painting supplies for Gunther and vinyl records. “This was built and dressed in less than two weeks,” Guy Barnes says.
Of her character, whom she calls a “killing machine,” Potente says: “She has a lot of memorabilia, and the texture of her inner world is soft —but also incredibly monstrous.”
Chee and Leaphorn interview boarding school students about the missing teen.
Michael Moriatis/AMC
Another new set built at Camel Rock is the Los Angeles outpost of the Indian Health Service, where Emma (Deanna Allison) has transferred after deciding she wasn’t able to live with Joe anymore. The medical office walls are lined with bright flower-power murals inspired by Marimekko designs, with breeze block in the background for a mid-century Californian look. Joe’s trip to L.A. to look for the runaway girl could mean a chance to finally talk with Emma again — but will she want to see him?
Propmaster Karma Harvey says in addition to sourcing from rentals and eBay, the production makes use of items from the collection of “Breaking Bad” crew member Mark Hansen — as long as his items look like they could be from the ‘70s. Harvey swears by her collection of Sears catalogs for dating specific props.
“Before every episode, we show what props are going to be used, it’s called the show,” Harvey says. “Then you bag and tag all of the props and take photos, so my team knows exactly which are going to be used and what’s been approved.”
Costume designer Lahly Poore presides over a vast wardrobe collection, ranging from traditional Native clothing to everyday street wear to numerous types of law enforcement uniforms. “Most of it is rented from Los Angeles,” she says, “and then we build more because we need so many multiples. Anytime anyone’s shot or thrown off a ledge, we have to build those clothes. “We spend of a lot of this season in Los Angeles, so it’s been really fun to do a more urban look,” she says.
Most of “Dark Winds” costumes are more subtle than the kooky looks one might expect in a period show. “We’re not that far into the ‘70s, we’ve got a lot of ‘60s going on. People keep their clothes; they’re not always wearing brand new clothes,” says Poore.
McClarnon, who grew up in the same era, confirms: “We’ve got a really wonderful crew that nails the 1970s. Our wardrobe is really on point this season.”
The costume department also works with cultural consultant Jennifer Wheeler to make sure traditional clothing is authentic. “We built beautiful velvet shirts for the women, and all of these broomstick skirts. You broomstick them and hang them out to dry in the hot New Mexico sun,” Poore says.
Likewise, a historic preservationist helps assess whether the production can shoot on parts of the Tesuque Pueblo, which surrounds the backlot, says “Dark Winds” executive producer and director Chris Eyre. “We use every square inch of this space,” he says.
Though it’s just a few minutes drive from downtown Santa Fe, the backlot stand in for Monument Valley, the striking part of the Navajo Nation where hundreds of famous Westerns were filmed. “We really did get lucky with all these rocks and formations of the landscape,” says executive producer Tina Elmo. “We’ll composite the more monumental spires in the background, Monument Valley type of looks.”
This season also serves as a tribute to executive producer Robert Redford, who died in September at the age of 89. Redford, along with “Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin, got “Dark Winds” off the ground after owning the rights to adapt the Tony Hillerman novels for four decades. The duo made an unexpected cameo appearance in Season 3, and it’s not really a spoiler to say that the Season 4 premiere episode ends with a title card dedicated to Redford.
Showrunner John Wirth says of Redford, “He championed the Hillerman books for 40 years before ‘Dark Winds’ made it to television and promoted Navajo and Native artists for every job on the show – from writers, to actors, to crew members top to bottom. He was truly one of one and his spirit continues to guide us every day on ‘Dark Winds.’”
Redford’s mission continues as “Dark Winds” trains young Indigenous people to work in TV. The series has partnered with the Institute of American Indian Arts to provide internships in lighting, wardrobe, props and camera.
“If I can walk away from the show after how ever many seasons we do, and know that is part of my legacy, that’s awesome — getting Native people into this business,” McClarnon says.