Although the status of the show was up in the air following the previous season, True Detective season 4 was officially announced in February following a three-year hiatus. Moonlight director Barry Jenkins was subsequently announced as an executive producer of the show alongside Issa López, who will write season 4 and direct the first episode. Alan Page Arriaga of Fear the Walking Dead has also been tapped as a writer for the new season. Now titled True Detective: Night Country, the season will star Foster as lead detective for the new case.
Per THR, new details of True Detective‘s upcoming season, as well as the season’s title Night Country, sheds light on the series’ new case. Foster stars as Liz Danvers as she attempts to solve a potential series of murders in Alaska as winter begins to set. After six Arctic research workers go missing, Danvers and her partner Evangeline Navarro must track down the men under the cover of lasting darkness. Read HBO’s official plot synopsis for True Detective season 4 below.
“When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, 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.”
True Detective season 4 is set in the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska, most likely situated in Northern Alaska near the Arctic Ocean. At that latitude, residents and research workers can experience over two months of darkness, as the sun remains below the horizon for a large part of the winter. The season 4 title Night Country lends itself to this climate, suggesting that Danvers and her partner Navarro will need to solve the case of the missing researchers in perpetual darkness, as well as within the harsh weather of the Alaskan winters.
The season’s fictional setting of Alaska may use the small arctic city of Utqiagvik (formerly known as Barrow) as its inspiration. With a population of just over 5,000 residents, Utqiagvik features a polar night during winter that lasts 66 days. What’s more, it is also the home to the Barrow Arctic Research Station/Environmental Observatory, another possible inspiration for the upcoming season. Although no release date for True Detective: Night Country has been revealed, season 4 is shaping up to be a chilling thriller lead expertly by a seasoned actor of the genre in Foster.
