Over a decade has passed since True Detective‘s first season landed on HBO in 2014. In doing so, anthology series not only leveled-up Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey’s onscreen chemistry but provided proof of so-called “water cooler” TV’s survival. The greatness of that duo also meant that future seasons could never reach the same bar, although the season starring Mahershala Ali, Stephen Dorff, and Scoot McNairy’s mustache did come closer to finding magic than the sophomore effort.

Then a fourth installment, Night Country, reinvigorated interest in the anthology series despite the season’s flaws. Viewers were drawn to the well-crafted relationship between the season’s central detectives (portrayed by Jodie Foster and Kali Reis), along with the sufficiently compelling murder mystery and cosmic horror references. HBO also proudly noted increasing viewership that was at times higher than the first season, and they swiftly renewed the series with Issa López coming back as showrunner, director, and writer, so let’s explore what to expect from the fifth season.

Plot

Before we head into discussing more Night Country, it’s worth mentioning that original series creator Nic Pizzolato recently mentioned having “another story” in mind for McConaughey’s Rust Cohle and Harrelson’s Marty Hart, and “who knows, maybe we’ll do it one day.” Of course, Pizzolatto has also been vocal about his distaste for Night Country, which didn’t attempt to land the same beats as the debut but made cult-spiral references (and even drew a Rust Cohle fatherly connection) to connect to the franchise’s overall universe.

Will that revival of the original detective duo happen? Nobody knows, but more Night Country is definitely in the works, and tidbits have slowly tricked forth, including the fifth season’s location. That would be according to HBO EVP Francesca Orsi, who revealed to Deadline that the fifth season is “set in New York, in Jamaica Bay.” She added, “Issa has a lot to say, not unlike she did with Night Country. It’s a different milieu but just as powerful.”

Although Jamaica Bay is a neighborhood in Queens and obviously isn’t as tropical (at all) as Jamaica (the Caribbean nation), NYC is considerably warmer than Ennis, Alaska with Iceland standing in for a filming location. Orsi further revealed that the season’s scripts (written by López with “a small writers room”) received notes from HBO, and from here, “It’s all about casting and getting this ready.”

Late last year, López told Page Six that “there’s going to be some important connections between everything that happens in Ennis, Alaska, and the characters in Ennis, Alaska, and what happens in the new [season].” Viewers should expect “Really f***ed up stuff” to happen, too, and the fifth season will also point toward the first season to maintain an overarching universe:

“It’s very important for me, and I worked a lot in ‘Night Country’ about this, to create the feeling that this is the same universe; that the events that happened in the first season, and the weird s**t that happens in the first season affects this sensation of, ‘There’s something bigger than us and darker than what we can imagine behind the scenes,’” she explained.

“And that is happening in this [next] season too. And it’s connected to the original idea … this dark reality behind the scenes of what we think is our reality.”

Ideally, a synopsis will arrive sooner rather than later, along with a subtitle for this upcoming season.

Cast

López has been upfront about a completely new cast for the coming season, but viewers wouldn’t be mad about a cameo by Jodie Foster or Kali Reis.

Release Date

HBO’s Francesca Orsi expects this season to arrive in 2027.

Trailer

Since footage likely won’t surface until 2026, a look back at the first season is never a waste of time. Instead of the usual “time is a flat circle clip, however,” car conversations between Rust and Marty were always ripe with fruits of a glorious dynamic. Maybe Pizzolato’s world should come back, too?