The third season of the critically acclaimed and much-beloved series Reservation Dogs is set to debut on Aug. 3 and will mark its series finale.
Sterlin Harjo, who co-created the FX series that streams on Hulu, took to Instagram to make the sad announcement.
“I always knew what the end of this story would be, I just didn’t know when it would arrive,” he wrote. “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. When we came up with the idea for Reservation Dogs, I didn’t think the show would ever get made, but thankfully it did.”
Harajo went on to say that he created the show as a way to show that “Native humor and Natives are funny” and to combat the “inaccurate” and “untruthful” portrayals of Indigenous people on TV.
“It has been a gift to us to show the world a different perspective of Indigenous people and our culture,” he wrote. “Most important of all, it has been a dream to collaborate and make a show that is entirely written by, directed by and stars Native people. These are our stories, and they represent our people. We know it’s an enormous responsibility and we don’t take that lightly.”
Reservation Dogs is set in rural Oklahoma and follows four Indigenous teenagers who are reeling after the death of their friend Daniel a year prior to the start of the show. They spend their days stealing, scheming and sometimes fighting crime as the gang wrestles with a desire to get out of Oklahoma and move to California, the way Daniel dreamed of doing.
Harajo, a Seminole/Muscogee Creek filmmaker, created the show with Maori director Taika Waititi (Our Flag Means Death,Thor: Love and Thunder). Harajo is also the show runner and serves as executive producer with Waititi and Garret Basch.
Not only is there fantastic Native representation both behind and in front of the camera, but there’s LGBTQ+ representation too. Devery Jacobs, a queer Kahnawà:ke Mohawk actor who stars as Elora Danan, is also a writer and director on the show alongside trans Navajo filmmaker Sydney Freeland.
Reservation Dogs has been lauded by critics and beloved by audiences, something that Harajo doesn’t take for granted. “It has been an incredible experience to have the show embraced so lovingly by the audience and TV critics,” he continued in his Instagram post. “We’re grateful for the support we’ve received from producer Garrett Basch, as well as John Landgraf, Nick Grad, Kate Lambert and everyone at FX and Hulu. Our experience with them has been exceptional and we’re excited to develop new shows with them once things get up and moving again. There are so many people to thank — our amazing writers, directors and crew and all the people of Okmulgee, Tulsa and the great people of the Muscogee Nation.”
