It’s official! 2026 is starting on a high note, as FX has announced that The Lowdown will be returning for a second season!
The Lowdown stars Ethan Hawke as Lee Rayborn, a rare bookstore owner who calls himself a “truthstorian, whose investigation into corruption pulled him through buried histories, contested land, and the systems built to protect those in power. The character is inspired by Leroy Chapman, the late journalist and friend of series co-creator Sterlin Harjo. Chapman’s work helped surface long-suppressed histories in Tulsa, including public reckoning around the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
On the surface, The Lowdown was presented as a contemporary noir set in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But beneath the mystery and corruption, the truth that Lee uncovered was the living consequences of colonial violence and its impact on non-Indigenous and Native communities alike. It was a story that unflinchingly confronted the necessity of landback in the pursuit of truth and justice. That level of layered storytelling is what makes the renewal of The Lowdown so exciting, because the question that will linger in all our minds is “what happens next?”
Harjo had been sitting on the story that would become The Lowdown for years, returning to the first twenty pages again and again without finding a way forward. After the success of Reservation Dogs and his growing creative relationship with Ethan Hawke, Harjo reworked the material into a pilot. He passed it to Hawke under the pretense of asking for notes.
Hawke was hooked after the first few pages and really connected to the character of Lee. “I didn’t think twice about it. I understood this guy and wanted to play him badly,” Hawke said about his involvement with The Lowdown and his partnership with Harjo.
Both have described their collaboration as instinctive, with room for risk and revision, and that sensibility shows on screen. With FX renewing The Lowdown for a second season, it is clear the network understands the value of that approach.
While details about the new season have not yet been announced, what we do know is that production will resume this spring in Tulsa, with Ethan Hawke reprising his role as Lee. As more details about Season 2 emerge, Red POP! News will keep you updated.
In the meantime, you can watch the entire first season of The Lowdown on Hulu.
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