True Detective was one of the newer wave of prestige television shows in the 2010s that helped set a new benchmark for what episodic format stories could do. The first season, which premiered in 2014, was met with critical acclaim, garnering five Emmy Awards when it first aired. Among the many nominations were two for its lead actors: Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, who played two partners assigned to an unsettling murder case that spans decades. The show would go on to spawn three more seasons, taking on an anthology format and featuring a new backdrop and characters with each new entry.
Recently, there have been talks with series creator Nic Pizzolatto about bringing back McConaughey and Harrelson for another season. Following comments from both Pizzolatto and McConaughey earlier this year, Harrelson gave his own two cents on the matter during his appearance on the Today show to promote his upcoming film Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. The actor shockingly revealed that he has no intention of returning to the role of Martin Hart, saying: “In fairness, never. Not a chance. Because it turned out great, I love that it turned out the way it did. If anything, doing another season would, I think, tarnish that.”
Thankfully, Harrelson’s reasons for not wanting to return come from a place of reverence for the work he and the rest of the team did on True Detective Season 1. Despite there being three other seasons since its release, the first season of True Detective is widely regarded as the best the series had to offer, finally being beaten out in Rotten Tomatoes critics scores by the fourth entry True Detective: Night Country, 10 years later. Moreover, there is always that chance that bringing back the characters of Rustin Cohle and Martin Hart after the beautiful conclusion to their story could retroactively make the first season not as good.
‘True Detective’ Has a Bright Future, Just Without Harrelson or McConaughey
It’s hard not to be curious about what Nic Pizzolatto had in store for the characters in what would essentially be a True Detective Season 1 revival. The series creator had only teased that the idea was something that he had in his head, and nothing concrete written down. McConaughey had also voiced his eagerness to return, stating that as long as the story was good and justified his character’s return, he would be on board any potential project. Unfortunately, Woody Harrelson’s hesitancy puts a stop to any notions of another season that brings these characters back.
There are currently plans for a fifth season of True Detective, with Issa López, showrunner of the previous season, returning to develop this next entry. It was reported back in August that Nicolas Cage was in talks to star in this latest season, and that the setting for the new story would be in the Jamaica Bay Area of New York City. While it doesn’t seem likely that audiences will get to see Rust or Hart anytime soon, fans can take solace in the fact that new True Detective stories are still being told.
- Release Date
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January 12, 2014
- Network
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HBO Max
