True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto was the mastermind behind the first three seasons of the HBO anthology crime series, but he wasn’t creatively involved in the latest season, True Detective: Night Country, despite retaining an executive producer credit on the show – and he repeatedly let it be known that he wasn’t a fan of how the show was going in his absence. True Detective: Night Country comes to us from Tigers Are Not Afraid filmmaker Issa López, who directed and co-wrote all six episodes of the season, and despite Pizzolatto’s objections, this season was able to draw in enough viewers that it became the most-watched season of the show, with Deadline reporting that it averaged 12.7 million cross-platform viewers, with 3.2 million checking out the season finale on the day of its release. So it’s no surprise to hear that López might be coming back for more True Detective.
True Detective: Night Country picks up after the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, as the six men that operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice. JoBlo’s own Alex Maidy loved Night Country, giving it a 9/10 review.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, López confirmed that she has had some ideas for what a follow-up to Night Country could be like, revealing that it would be set during “the long day” in Ennis, but said she probably wouldn’t pursue that idea because she liked where the characters were in the Night Country season finale, feeling their story has come to an end. “It would be a disservice to the characters” to just drop them into another mystery story. Still, “the constant information that I’m getting from social is they want more of Danvers and Navarro, and also Prior. There’s a lot of love for Prior. It’s very tempting. But I do feel that the characters grew. It’s a lot more boring to do drama about grown people than people that need growth. So I don’t think I’ll do it.“
But would López do a True Detective that wouldn’t be a Night Country sequel? She said, “I cannot answer that just yet.” When the interviewer noted that sounded optimistic, she said, “I cannot answer that just yet. But…” She went on to say, “This is an absolutely honest answer: I miss cinema enormously, and I do have a project that is on the cusp, actually. I was on the cusp of making it, and it was stopped to do True Detective. Now the big question is, do I jump right back into that movie, or do I want to make more TV? And, we will know very shortly.“
The interviewer then suggested having a season where Jodie Foster’s Night Country character would share the screen with Matthew McConaughey’s character from the first season. López responded, “Right. That would be … (Pauses.) Oh, f*ck. Well, there’s an idea… (Laughs.) There you go!“
We know Nic Pizzolatto wouldn’t be happy to hear that True Detective might continue on under the guidance of Issa López, but what do you think of the idea? Would you like to see another López season of the show? Let us know by leaving a comment below.