It’s official: Ethan Hawke’s ‘The Lowdown’ is coming back to FX
Ethan Hawke’s acclaimed 'The Lowdown' has set its Season 2 premiere date — here’s when and where to watch.
If you haven't clocked it yet, The Lowdown has quietly become one of FX's real standouts. The show rather exploded out of nowhere last year, just when Ethan Hawke was already showing up everywhere you looked. Bit of a dark horse, it was, turning into what critics and the internet mutually agreed was the top new drama of 2025 — helped no end by its weirdly perfect pairing of Hawke and Sterlin Harjo. Season 2’s now got an official premiere lined up, and if you're wondering whether they can keep the momentum, you’re not alone.
The Lowdown Season 2 officially lands Oct. 14 at 9 p.m. ET on FX, with eight new episodes dropping weekly and Disney+ handling the international side.
Heavyweight newcomers
For anyone after a cast shakeup, there are a couple of names here that would raise eyebrows in any press release. The biggest swing: Tommy Lee Jones. Bloke hasn’t committed to proper telly like this since Lonesome Dove — Harjo must have written a hell of a part. He’s playing Lee Raybon Sr., estranged father to Hawke's Lee, described as a grifter who’s been out of the picture so long that Lee’s told his own teenage daughter Francis the old man's actually dead. Watching Jones and Hawke trade barbs as dysfunctional father and son — that’s honestly half the pitch right there.
Then there’s Betty Gilpin, turning up as Ginger, a public defender who’s extremely unimpressed by Lee’s particular brand of charm. If you watched GLOW (and frankly, you should have), you know Gilpin’s due a part this meaty. She’s not there to make life easier for Lee, which should be fun to watch unravel.
Who’s back? Who’s new?
- Austin Amelio, Martha Plimpton, and Clifton Collins Jr. — properly good supporting choices.
- Keith David, Kaniehtiio Horn, Rafael Casal, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong all sticking around from last season.
- Keith David’s character, Marty, has been bumped up to managing editor at The Heartland Press — so you can expect more office politics with Lee bruising egos all round.
One change that’s easy to miss but likely to matter — putting Marty above Lee in the newsroom pecking order after all their push-pull in season one. It's the kind of tiny office drama shift that usually means big headaches for the title character. Which is pretty much what you want out of this show, let’s be honest.
What's the long game?
The creator, Sterlin Harjo, has never hidden that he’s got a pretty long arc in his head. The show loosely riffs on real-life Tulsa journalist Lee Roy Chapman, giving Harjo all sorts of local history and urban legend to mine for a supposed “chapter-based” approach. In fact, he spelt out exactly that when Season 1 was still airing. Here’s what he told TV Insider:
‘We see this going on for a few more seasons, hopefully, with luck, and everyone puts it out there and loves it. But yeah, it'll keep going and, I think that each season would be its own chapter, which this chapter is 'The Sensitive Kind.’
The schedule — only a short gap between production and this rapid-fire autumn return — makes it pretty clear FX want to keep the buzz alive and maybe nudge the awards voters' memories. If there’s a reason for mild caution, it’s the usual problem with these prestige noirs: cracking a second season without falling into the ‘another mystery’ trap hardly anyone dodges. Still, with this cast, worth seeing how they pull it off.