Veteran television producer John Wirth, has joined SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard as the new showrunner, The Hell on Wheels EP has recently concluded the majority of his duties on AMC’s television series and recently mentioned during an interview on Weird West Radio that he was open to running another series. Looks like the television gods were smiling down on Mr. Wirth, because he’s got his hands on a solid source of pulp fiction goodness to delve into next season.

Michael Kenneth Williams, James Purefoy, John Wirth

On a personal side note, it’s no mystery that I’m a huge Joe R. Landsdale fan. I’ve probably read just about every pulpish book of his I can get my hands on. John Wirth is arguably one of the best showrunners working in the business today, now add that bit of ingredient to the mix and I think we are about to get some fantastic television.

John Wirth was brought on during the third season of Hell on Wheels to remedy some problems when Tony and Joe Gayton left the series. Let me be clear, I don’t have any insider information on this particular situation, however John has a reputation similar to Harvey Keitel’s character in Pulp Fiction; he solves problems. This change in structure signals to me that they probably want to change direction from the previous season. Essentially, Wirth is “The Wolf” in this situation–and I’m okay with this.

The Hap and Leonard was created by Nick Damici and Jim Mickle and is based on the Hap and Leonard novels written by Joe R. Lansdale. According to Deadline “Like Season 1, Season 2 would–have six episodes.”