The fifth and final season of the AMC television series Hell on Wheels premiered on July 18, 2015 and comprised 14 episodes. The season was evenly split; the first half aired in late 2015, and the second half aired in mid-2016. This season, set in California and Laramie, Wyoming, focused on the race to complete America's First Transcontinental Railroad, as Cullen Bohannon switched from working with the Union Pacific to the Central Pacific Railroad, upon the CP developer's promise to help find Cullen's family.
Byron Mann as Chang, labor contractor for the Central Pacific Railroad
Reg Rogers as James Strobridge, construction superintendent for the Central Pacific Railroad
MacKenzie Porter as Naomi Hatch Bohannon, Cullen Bohannon's wife, who struggles to build a new life, family, and home and is awakening her own desire to experience adventures beyond the Mormon fort
Angela Zhou as Fong/Mei, a Chinese worker for the Central Pacific Railroad. Originally disguised as Tao's son, Fong, she is discovered by Cullen to be a woman named Mei.
Chelah Horsdal as Maggie Palmer, the richest woman in Cheyenne and owner of the Palmer Hotel, who is often at odds with Durant
Jake Weber as John Allen Campbell, a former Brigadier General for the Union Army, appointed provisional governor of Wyoming by Ulysses S. Grant. Campbell is determined to civilize the West and seize control of the city from railroad mogul Durant.
Toby Hemingway as Isaac Vinson, a farmhand for the Hatches. In Cullen's absence, Naomi has fallen in love with him.
Andy Yu as Hoi, a Chinese worker who was the first to give his life for the railroad after Cullen's decision to switch from traditional gunpowder to nitroglycerin.
Production
On November 7, 2014, AMC renewed Hell On Wheels for a fifth and final season, consisting of 14 episodes, which premiered July 18, 2015. AMC also announced the season would be split into two parts, with half the episodes to air in 2015 and the other half beginning July 2016. About the season, showrunner John Wirth stated: "The end of the story is written down in history, so we know how the story would end for the railroad." He added: "What we didn't know is how the story would end for each of our characters, especially the ones that we created. It's been really challenging to wrap up people's stories in a satisfying way We've gone down a lot of blind alleys and we've taken a lot of wrong turns and we've lost our way. Now, we've kind of clawed our way back to what I think is going to be a pretty good wrap up for the series." The fifth season's production filming took place on the CL Ranch, west of Calgary, for the Truckee, California, and Laramie, Wyoming, locations. The Kananaskis Country park system, 40 miles west of the ranch, serves as the Sierra Nevada mountains the Central Pacific Railroad must cross.
Episodes
The finale was followed by two additional bonus specials, on July 24, 2016, on AMC, titled "Series Wrap-Up" and "Inside the Final Episode".
