‘Dark Winds’: 6 Fun Behind-the-Scenes Facts About Season 4’s Production
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Dark Winds is back on TV and already gearing up for its fifth season with AMC as the ’70s-set noir led by Zahn McClarnon continues the story of his Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn.
Filmed around Santa Fe, New Mexico, primarily in and around Camel Rock Studios, situated on Tesuque land, Dark Winds‘ tight-knit operation is a well-oiled machine, four seasons in, and TV Insider was on location to see it firsthand. Touring around the expansive lot, executive producer Tina Elmo showed TV Insider and other outlets around some key locations, offering intriguing insights into certain sets and how the production makes the most of its time and budget, allowing fans the opportunity to tune into new episodes every year.
Below, we’re sharing some of the behind-the-scenes secrets Elmo revealed alongside other fascinating facts about the production which will pick back up in March 2026 for Season 5.
Scroll down for a look at our visit, and don’t miss Dark Winds Season 4 as it unfolds on AMC and AMC+.
Dark Winds, Season 4, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC & AMC+
Camel Rock Studios
Camel Rock Studios was formerly Camel Rock Casino, and stepping into the primary hub of production, you can see evidence of the former venue through patterned carpeting and lingering murals in corridors, but a few steps through a wooden arch will transport you into spaces like Leaphorn’s home or the LA-set IHS.
Multiple Locations
Because Camel Rock Studios uses production space so wisely, filming can take place on set inside somewhere like the Navajo Police Station, and secondary units can capture drone footage down the road for exterior sequences. “That’s what we’re doing right now because we’re at the end and we don’t want to go over budget, and we have a certain amount of time, and we have to stay in it,” Elmo shared on set in June 2025.
Joe and Emma's House
One of those exterior locations is Joe and Emma Leaphorn’s (Deanna Allison) house, which is situated right next to Season 4’s opening set piece, the diner. “We’re so grateful now… because we don’t shoot in the dead of winter,” Elmo shared as we walked around the house exterior. “Season 1, we did, so this was really like a shelter for our production team. Everybody was in there with heaters.”
The Diner
As viewers encounter in Season 4’s premiere episode, a diner features prominently in a pivotal shootout scene involving the leading antagonist, Irene Vaggan (Franka Potente). The structure, erected a few hundred feet away from Camel Rock Studios, is situated to look as though it stands solitary in the desert. The set piece took roughly two weeks to build, but the team behind this series easily makes it appear as if this place has always existed.
Minute details, like signage on the walls, red cups on the shelf, and appropriately dated tech puts you back in time. “We shoot it at night,” Elmo teased at the time. “It’s awesome with all the lights, it really looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere.”
Thrifty Transformations
One space we walked through was a visitor’s room in a prison, which is a space Season 4 guest star Titus Welliver will occupy. “It’s crazy because remember Border Patrol?” Elmo set up, before she revealed that this prison set was the renovation of that set. “We’re using the shell of buildings now,” she explained. This location, which is just steps outside the back door of Camel Rock Studios, is also part of the LA-based shenanigans Leaphorn and his team will have as Season 4 unfolds.
Preserving Culture
“There’s also a lot of sacred sites here that we avoid, and if anything is found, we turn it in,” Elmo revealed, sharing how the production operates while filming on Indigenous land. “There’s been arrowheads and other things [that] the Tesuque Pueblo will identify for us, like where they have found other artifacts, and we stay very far away from those areas, but we’ve definitely discovered things.” Elmo directly credited, “we couldn’t do this without the Tesuque.”
Occasionally, the show will film in the Navajo Nation, which is located northwest of Santa Fe. “It’s always good for us when we get to go to the Navajo Nation for real,” Elmo shared, but noted, pointing around the land surrounding Camel Rock Studios, “all of this doubles for the Navajo Nation, which we’re so fortunate.”
Elmo added, “I see the benefit of having a partner like AMC that invests in multiple seasons that give us the opportunity to really find out who we are, and a lot of that is hinged on the authenticity.” The executive producer revealed that the production has students from the nearby Institute of American Indian Art (IAIA) who intern on set. “One young woman came up to me and told me she’s learning about her own culture through our show.”
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