Jodie Foster, True Detective: Night Country

Michele K. Short/HBO
One of the best shows of 2024 came right at the start of the year: HBO’s True Detective: Night Country, which enlisted Jodie Foster and Kali Reis for an enthralling season from new showrunner Issa López, years after most of us assumed the series had been put to rest. Night Country had the highest viewership for the entire series, and it didn’t take long for the powers that be at HBO to renew True Detective for Season 5.

Now it’s a year later, and the next season of True Detective is still nowhere to be seen, but the news has slowly begun to trickle out as showrunner Issa Lopez and co. develop a new story in the HBO Gumshoe-verse — we finally have some real details. Scroll down for everything there is to know about True Detective Season 5, like who is and is not returning for the next season and how long it might be before we get to watch it.

True Detective Season 5 latest news

We have a setting. Speaking with Deadline, HBO’s drama chief Francesca Orsi made a few interesting comments about the upcoming season of True Detective, most notably that showrunner Issa Lopez has chosen where it will take place: Jamaica Bay, in New York, an inlet and wildlife refuge to the south of Brooklyn and Queens, adjacent to the JFK airport.

“Issa has a lot to say, not unlike she did with Night Country. It’s a different milieu but just as powerful,” Orsi said. “We just gave notes on the first two episodes, the entire season. Honestly, I can’t wait for this to go. It’s all about casting and getting this ready.”

True Detective Season 5 renewal

On Feb. 22, just five days after the final episode of Night Country aired, HBO renewed the series for a fifth season — considering how popular the season had been, that actually seemed a little bit slow, but there was a reason for that. HBO didn’t just announce the show’s renewal — the network also announced that Issa López, who wrote and directed all six episodes of Night Country, will return in the same capacity for Season 5.

True Detective Season 5 cast — will Jodie Foster return?

According to Jodie Foster, she won’t be back for the next season of True Detective. When asked by Variety on the Oscars Red Carpet about the possibility of returning for the next chapter, Foster was definitive: “No.” The actress says it was a “one and done” role and that True Detective will retain its anthology format.

However, Season 4 creator, director, and writer Issa López is definitely coming back. Even though Night Country had some surprising connections to True Detective‘s past, López referred to Season 5 as “a new incarnation” of the series, which implies a new story like the previous season. At the same time, however, Lopez promises there will be some “connections” between Night Country and the upcoming season which takes place in New York.

“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],” Lopez said. “There’s a little bit of joy for the fans of Night Country.”

True Detective Season 5 release date prediction

It took a full decade for us to get four seasons of True Detective. After Season 1 aired in January 2014, we got Season 2 a year and a half later. Season 3 came three and a half years after that, and it was another five years before Night Country. This is not a series that has traditionally been in a huge hurry.

And that is not changing any time soon, because HBO’s drama head Francesca Orsi told Deadline that they’re aiming for a 2027 launch for True Detective Season 5.

True Detective overview

True Detective is an anthology mystery series with a distinctively noir bent — meaning it’s as grim and gritty as grim and gritty gets. Until Night Country, each season of True Detective had been completely its own thing, telling a single, sprawling standalone story across each season, usually with some kind of conspiracy at the heart of the situation.

Night Country broke from the mold a little bit by including explicit references to the Louisiana-set Season 1, despite taking place thousands of miles away in Alaska. Could this lead to an even more connected Season 5? I wouldn’t count it out.

An interesting Season 4 tidbit: López’s original pitch for Night Country was as a new series, but HBO presented the idea of telling it as part of the True Detective franchise, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Kali Reis, True Detective: Night Country

Michele K. Short/HBO

True Detective Season 4 review

True Detective: Night Country was very well regarded by critics, earning a weighted average of 81 out of 100 from critics on Metacritic. TV Guide’s Keith Phipps called Night Country a return to form in his positive review. Following the disappointing Season 2 of True Detective, TV Guide’s Liam Mathews previously said Season 3 was much better in his review.