Sure, the second season of HBO's True Detective couldn't hope to reach the lofty heights of the excellent first season, but to be fair, they did set an awfully higt bar for themselves. I'm still quite excited by the upcoming third season of the anthology series but unfortunately, one of the reasons for that excitment has departed. Variety has reported that Jeremy Saulnier (GREEN ROOM) has stepped away after completing the first two episodes of the season.
In a statement from HBO, it's said that "scheduling conflicts" are the reason for Jeremy Saulnier's departure, but Variety's sources say that "filming on location in Arkansas has been tough at times, and that Pizzolatto and Saulnier had differences of opinion on the episodes." The outlet also notes that once production wrapped on the second episode, it became clear that the shooting schedule for the third would take longer than expected. Perhaps Saulnier wasn't about to continue butting heads with True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto and elected to depart, but the director took to Twitter to say, "no comment." Replacing Jeremy Saulnier will be TV veteran Daniel Sackheim, who has helmed episodes of The X-Files, The Walking Dead, The Americans, Game of Thrones, and much more. Directing duties on the remaining six episodes will be split up with Nic Pizzolatto, who will be making his directorial debut on the series.
The third season of the HBO series is set to tell the story of a macabre crime in the heart of the Ozarks and a mystery that deepens over decades and plays out in three separate time periods. Mahershala Ali will be playing the lead role of Wayne Hays, a state police detective from Northwest Arkansas, and Ray Fisher will play Freddy Burns, Wayne's son. Stephen Dorff will be playing Wayne’s partner, Roland West, an Arkansas State Investigator who, along with his partner, has his life and career influenced over three decades by a baffling crime. Carmen Ejogo is also set to star as Amelia Reardon, an Arkansas schoolteacher with a connection to two missing children in 1980, and Scoot McNairy will play Tom, a father who suffers a terrible loss that ties his fate to that of two state police detectives over 10 years.
The third season of HBO's True Detective is expected to debut in 2019.