NN.“SOME SECRETS DON’T STAY BURIED IN THE DESERT.” AMC just dropped the first look at Dark Winds Season 4 — and it’s darker, dustier, and far more dangerous than anyone expected. Zahn McClarnon’s Leaphorn isn’t chasing a new case this time… he’s being haunted by the one that never truly d.i.e.d.
‘Dark Winds’ Sets Season 4 Release Date, Zahn McClarnon Returns With an Unsolved Mystery in Teaser Trailer
AMC has officially locked in the return of Dark Winds. The network announced that Season 4 of the critically praised drama will premiere later this year, and released the first teaser trailer revealing Zahn McClarnon back on screen as Tribal Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn — this time staring down a case that refuses to die.
A Slow-Burn Teaser Built on Omission
The newly dropped footage avoids plot exposition and instead leans into tone: desert wind against rock, late-night lamp light over evidence tables, and Leaphorn’s face — unreadable, but not calm. The teaser closes on a short exchange hinting that an unresolved case from the past is still bleeding into the present. No names, no bodies, no origin — just the insinuation that something never closed.
Kiowa Gordon, Jessica Matten and Deanna Allison are seen in flash cuts, though AMC has not yet revealed how each character will intersect with the new investigation. The network is likewise keeping the episode count and core case details under wraps.
The Phenomenon of Dark Winds
Adapted from Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee novels, Dark Winds has been a breakout for AMC: a period crime series told from within Navajo territory and led on-screen and behind the camera by Native talent. Seasons 1–3 earned praise for performances, location work, score restraint, and for rejecting the clichés that typically flatten Indigenous stories on television.
Season 3’s finale ended without narrative closure, a structural risk that seems to be the foundation of the Season 4 launch — not a new puzzle, but an old one that never finished being solved.
Release Plan
AMC confirmed that Dark Winds Season 4 will premiere later in 2025, with episodes streaming on AMC+ following their linear debut. A precise date will be announced closer to launch.
Until then, the teaser leaves viewers with one engineered provocation: the sense that Leaphorn is not entering a fresh investigation — he is walking back into something that should have stayed buried and didn’t.
