Exclusive ‘Hell on Wheels’ Final Season Premiere Sneak Peek: Meet the New Big Bad

AMC’s Hell on Wheels might have set its final destination to conclude the series in 2016, but there’s plenty of track between then and Cullen Bohannon’s end. Case in point, the first seven episodes of the revered drama’s fifth and final season will get rolling this Saturday, and we have an exclusive first look at premiere installment “Chinatown”s new big bad.

Premiering Saturday, July 18 at 9:00 P.M. ET, the final season of AMC’s Hell on Wheels will see Cullen Bohannon crossing over to the Central Pacific Railroad in the mountain town of Truckee, California, along with its thousands of Chinese workers. Our exclusive first look at Saturday’s all-new installment gets up close and personal with its leader Chang (Arrow star Byron Mann), who doesn’t appear terribly fond of our pal Cullen.

So reads AMC’s official synopsis for Saturday’s “Chinatown”:

The Season 5 opener finds Cullen in California with the Central Pacific Railroad, building east through the mountains. There, he contends with new bosses, Chinese workers and rowdy Irishmen. Meanwhile, word that the Hatches are Mormon apostates comes in from Salt Lake City.

You can catch our exclusive early sneak peek of the final season (Which, again, won’t really end until 2016, thank you Mad Men!) above, preview the Chinese involvement in a new featurette below, and prepare for Hell on Wheels to begin its final run this Saturday on AMC.