Over the course of HBO’s True Detective anthology series, each season has told standalone stories that don’t connect to each other at all other than with the title and tone. But, it looks like that might actually change with the upcoming season, True Detective: Night Country.
Showrunner Issa López recently teased there will be some direct connections to the previous seasons of the series. This would confirm that all of these stories that have been told are set in the same universe. She also hinted that there were connections to the more supernatural aspects of the first season. She shared this insight with Entertainment Weekly, saying:
“There are Easter eggs throughout that you will find and there’s a big, big thing in Episode 6 that you will discover in time. It is its own story, but it’s still connected. The spiral is there, the way that there are those dark and ancient gods (perhaps yes, perhaps not) working behind the scenes. It is the same universe.”
The first season of True Detective was definitely the best one and it’ll be interesting to see how this upcoming season actually ends up connecting to that. I’m especially curious about that “big, big, thing” in episode 6.
López joked, “HBO, you guys are incredible in the way that you trust a crazy Mexican. They were like, ‘You can do it. Whatever you want.’ Which is terrifying, it’s the worst thing.” She added:
“I’m not going to follow the format and I’m not going to follow the way it’s shot. I do follow the idea and the aesthetic of this world behind them, and I constantly go back to show you the universe, the world where it’s set, which is so unique. This corner of the north, forgotten by the world, Alaska. That I kept. And then the other thing that I thought was brilliant was two characters in a car trying to decipher the workings of the universe and their souls.”
The description for the new season reads: “When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) must confront their pasts and the dark truths lying underneath the Arctic ice.”
The cast also includes Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett, Isabella Star Lablanc, Aka Niviâna, Anna Lambe, Joel D. Montgrand, Christopher Eccleston and John Hawkes.
True Detective: Night Country premieres on HBO in January 2024.
