'Snowpiercer' Season 4 Greenlit Ahead Of Season 3 Premiere

After a famously bumpy development period, TNT's Snowpiercer will continue to chug along for a while longer: the network has handed the series a fresh renewal, continuing its tradition of giving a greenlight to an advance season before the impending season's premiere even hits the airwaves. Actually, I guess "airwaves" aren't technically involved since TNT is a cable network. But you know what I mean. Watch a video below of star Daveed Diggs announcing Snowpiercer season 4.

"We have been greenlit for season 4!" Diggs yells excitedly in the video, transitioning into something of a primal scream and thanking the show's "loyal fans." He went on: "Obviously, this wouldn't have happened without you. If you liked season 1 and 2, I have no reason to believe you won't love season 3 and 4. It only gets bigger and more Snowpiercery-er."

Snowpiercer season 3 is wrapping up production now, and does not yet have a planned premiere date. The second season concluded with Diggs' character Layton commandeering a so-called "pirate train" to break off from the main Snowpiercer vehicle in an attempt to locate Jennifer Connelly's Melanie, only to make a shocking discovery. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "season three will pick up shortly after that and also continue to follow Wilford (Sean Bean) as he tries to consolidate control over the Snowpiercer."

The outlet also reports that Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) and Chelsea Harris (Designated Survivor) will join the series for the third season, and Mike O'Malley (The Good Place) has been upped to a series regular after recurring in the first two seasons.

Based on the 2013 French graphic novel and set seven years before the events of Bong Joon-ho's movie adaptation, Snowpiercer takes place after an extinction-level event has wiped out most of humanity and is set on board a perpetually moving train which circles the planet, containing 1001 cars full of humans who have been separated into distinct social classes.

In a recent interview with KCRW's The Business, Diggs spoke about the wave of work he took on right after Hamilton became a phenomenon:

"Obviously, I was terrified that I was never going to work again. But also, there were a ton of opportunities coming my way that I didn't have any frame of reference for and I never thought I would get. I also genuinely wanted to do all these things, so I said a lot of 'yeses,' and I'm still trying to finish some of those contractual obligations."

When host Kim Masters asked Diggs if he had signed on for a certain number of seasons of Snowpiercer, he replied, "Oh yeah. I won't get into it, but I'm here. I'm in this thing."