Sterlin Harjo Noir Drama Starring Ethan Hawke Gets FX Pilot Order

EXCLUSIVE: FX has handed a pilot order to The Sensitive Kind, a high-profile drama project starring and executive produced by Ethan Hawke and created and executive produced by Sterlin Harjo, co-creator, executive producer and showrunner of the network’s acclaimed series Reservation Dogs.

The Sensitive Kind It marks a reunion — Hawke guest starred in Reservation Dogs as Rick Miller in the series penultimate episode “Elora’s Dad,” playing Elora Danan’s (Devery Jacobs) father she had never met.

Created by Harjo, The Sensitive Kind is a Tulsa noir about a guy (Hawke) who knows too much.

Harjo also serves as writer and director on the pilot, which he and Hawke executive produces with Garrett Basch. The project falls under Harjo’s overall deal with FX Productions, which is the studio.

The order for The Sensitive Kind comes on the heels of Reservation Dogs ending its award-winning three-season run on FX as the network’s topper John Landgraf told Deadline this week that he and his team are focused on finding worthy successors to Reservation Dogs and the handful of other successful series that wrapped in the past year.

“We have glaring needs for new dramas and comedies, starting in 2025,” he said, adding that he he’s “desperate to find the next great thing.”

Reservation Dogs won the AFI Award as one of the 10 Outstanding TV Programs of 2023, winning the AFI Award in every season of its run. Harjo’s previous narrative and documentary work includes the feature films Love and Fury, Mekko, This May Be The Last Time, Barking Water, and his Sundance Award-winning directorial debut Four Sheets To The Wind. Harjo is repped by CAA, Circle of Confusion, Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang.

Four-time Oscar nominee Hawke most recently co-wrote and directed the Flannery O’Connor biopic Wildcat, which stars his daughter, Maya Hawke. He’s also returning for Black Phone 2, the sequel to the hit 2022 Blumhouse-Crooked Highway-Universal production. On the TV side, Hawke starred in Blumhouse’s Showtime series The Good Lord Bird, in his television acting debut. Hawke also executive produced and co-wrote the series based on James McBride’s National Book Award-winning novel. Hawke is repped by CAA, MGMT Entertainment, ID and George Sheanshang.