AMC sets premiere date for final season of 'Hell on Wheels'

The fifth and final season of the small-screen western Hell on Wheels is to premiere July 18, AMC announced.

Seven new episodes will air this summer, with the final seven installments of the series following in 2016, the cable television network said.

Starring Anson Mount and Colm Meaney, the drama examines "the institutionalized greed and corruption behind the building of America's Transcontinental Railroad as loyalties are abandoned and the race between the Central Pacific and Union Pacific lines intensifies," press notes said.

"Hell on Wheels continues to be an epic journey in every way," Joel Stillerman, AMC's executive vice president of programming, production and digital content, said in a statement. "The amazing and passionate team of writers, producers, cast and crew, led by John Wirth, are pulling out all the stops to make this final season as compelling, dramatic and intense as the actual building of the railroad was. We're incredibly excited to share this part of the story with the large and loyal audience who have supported this show from the beginning."