AMC has announced the renewal of Hell on Wheels for a second season. The original series reigns as the second highest rated series on AMC, averaging 3.2 million viewers and 1.5 million Adults 25-54.* Season one’s finale is Sunday, January 15th at 10pm EST. Hell on Wheels is created and written by Joe and Tony Gayton, who also serve as executive producers. John Shiban, Jeremy Gold, Endemol’s SVP of scripted programming and David Von Ancken, who also directed the pilot, serve as executive producers. The series is executive produced by Endemol USA with Entertainment One serving as the studio. eOne’s Television CEO John Morayniss and EVP series television Michael Rosenberg oversee production in partnership with co-producers Mike Frislev and Chad Oakes at Nomadic Pictures.

Hell on Wheels tells the epic story of post-Civil War America, focusing on a Confederate soldier (Anson Mount) who sets out to exact revenge on the Union soldiers who have killed his wife. His journey takes him west to ‘Hell on Wheels,’ a dangerous, raucous, lawless melting pot of a town that travels with and services the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, an engineering feat unprecedented for its time. It examines the railroad’s institutionalized greed and corruption, the immigrant experience, and the plight of the newly emancipated African-Americans during reconstruction. Over time, Hell on Wheels chronicles this potent turning point in our nation’s history, and how uncivilized the business of civilization can be.

Hell on Wheels stars Anson Mount as Cullen Bohannon, a former soldier hell bent on avenging his wife’s death; Colm Meaney as Thomas “Doc” Durant, a greedy entrepreneur taking full advantage of the changing times; musician/actor Common as Elam Ferguson, an emancipated slave working to achieve true freedom in a world entrenched in prejudice; Dominique McElligott as Lily Bell, a newly widowed woman trying to survive in a man’s world; Tom Noonan as Reverend Cole; Ben Esler as Sean McGinnes and Philip Burke as Mickey McGinnes, two young brothers looking to find their fortune in the new West; and Eddie Spears as Joseph Black Moon, a Native American man torn between his culture and the changing world around him.