Skip to main content

HBO’s True Detective Season 4: Jodie Foster hunts a serial killer (and everything else we know)

True Detective's new season may feature more supernatural undertones

Jodie Foster and Kali Reis in True Detective season 4.
HBO

Over the course of its first three seasons, HBO’s True Detective has gone from a hugely respected phenomenon to a show with a more middling reputation. In spite of that roller coaster ride, the show is set to return for a fourth season, this time with the subtitle Night Country. In anticipation of that new season, which features some major star power, here’s everything we know about True Detective: Night Country.

What is True Detective season 4’s release date?

True Detective season 4 is set to launch near the very beginning of 2024. The show is set to premiere on HBO and Max (formerly HBO Max) on January 14, 2024. The show was initially slated for 2023 but had to be delayed in part because of the writers’ and actors’ strikes. The first episode will debut at 9:00 p.m. ET, and the season will be six episodes in total, with a new episode debuting on the platform once a week.

Who is in the cast of True Detective season 4?

True Detective‘s casts are always impressive, and this fourth season is no exception. Jodie Foster is set to star in the series, which will be one of her rare forays into TV work. Foster is a two-time Oscar winner who has already had a legendary career in Hollywood. Foster will play Detective Liz Danvers, the lead detective on a missing persons case who finds herself butting heads with everyone else on her team.

Foster will be paired with Kali Reis, a relative newcomer to the world of acting who is better known for her career as a boxer. Reis will play Detective Evangeline Navarro, Danvers’ partner, during this season. The cast also includes John Hawkes as a detective with a mysterious past, as well as Christopher Eccleston and Fiona Shaw. There are also a few younger actors in the cast, including Finn Bennett, Anna Lambe, and Isabella Star LaBlanc.

What is True Detective season 4 about?

While the first three seasons of True Detective were all written or co-written by Nic Pizzolatto, the fourth season is being shepherded to the screen by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins. Seasons of the show are usually shrouded in a fair bit of mystery, but we actually know a fair bit about the fourth season.

The season is set in an Alaskan community that is about to enter its polar night period, when darkness is something like a permanent feature. As the darkness comes in, detectives begin investigating the mysterious disappearance of a research team from a nearby facility. There’s already some speculation that this new season may have the kinds of supernatural overtones that previous seasons have only hinted at.

Is there a trailer for True Detective season 4?

True Detective: Night Country | Official Teaser | Max

We’ve gotten a few different looks at the new season, and while each of them has the hallmarks of True Detective, the snowy environs are also reminiscent of the world of Fargo. While the trailers don’t provide a ton of specific insight into how the season will unfold, we’re more than ready to start tuning in.

Editors' Recommendations

Joe Allen
Contributor
Joe Allen is a freelance culture writer based in upstate New York. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The…
Everything we know about Kevin Costner’s Horizon, the 4-film series that should please Yellowstone fans
Get the scoop on Kevin Costner's upcoming western films, Horizon.
kevin costner horizon film series featured 1

Fans of the hit series Yellowstone were less than pleased that the modern western is coming to a premature end with season 5. More importantly, series star Kevin Costner may not even return for the final episodes over an ongoing dispute with Paramount Network and Yellowstone showrunner Taylor Sheridan. One of the primary reasons behind Costner's exit is that he is laser-focused on his passion project, Horizon: An American Saga. It's the first movie that Costner has directed since 2003's Open Range and a return to the post-Civil War timeframe in his Oscar-winning movie, Dances With Wolves.

While Yellowstone fans would surely prefer to see Costner reprise his role as John Dutton one last time, there's a lot that they may like about Horizon. Costner's vision was too big for any single film to handle, which is why Horizon is planned to be a four-film series, and the first two movies have already been shot!

Read more
Everything we know about Joker Folie a Deux
Joker: Folie a Deux first look

Following the original Joker's enormous success and Oscar victories, Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix are reuniting for Joker: Folie a Deux. The movie promises to follow up on the events of the original film, which starred Phoenix as a troubled man who works as a clown and eventually commits heinous acts of violence because of, at least in the movie’s telling, the way the world treats him.

Now that Folie a Deux is on the horizon, there’s still plenty we don’t know about this sequel. Here’s everything we do know, though:
What is the release date for Joker: Folie a Deux?
Folie a Deux is set to hit theaters on October 4, 2024, around the same time the first movie premiered. This release date likely isn’t a shock to anyone who follows awards season, as it suggests that Warner Bros. is planning to position this sequel for awards. Whether the movie will merit them remains to be seen, but the first movie performed quite well at the Oscars and even won a couple of awards.

Read more
7 incredible shows like True Detective to watch now
Watch another series like True Detective? Then catch these 7 shows!
Kali Reis and Jodie Foster in True Detective: Night Country.

True Detective season 4 may be over, but there is good news for fans of the show. HBO has officially ordered another season of the anthology series. However, given the four-year gap between True Detective season 3 and True Detective: Night Country, it might be quite a while before a new mystery unfolds in this series. So the real question now is simple: What will you watch next?

There are plenty of police procedurals on network television, but they lack the same dark and ambiguous tone of True Detective. That's why when looking for similar series, the best options are almost always on streaming platforms or premium cable outlets. We've narrowed down our choices for the seven shows like True Detective that you should watch now that season 4 has come to a close. All you have to do is make time to watch them.

Read more