“True Detective” fans can expect plenty of “really f – – ked up stuff” in the series’ upcoming fifth season, showrunner Issa López has exclusively told The Post.
Season 5 will mark López’s second season at the helm of the anthology crime drama, after taking over from series creator Nic Pizzolatto in Season 4, “True Detective: Night Country.”
López spoke with The Post about the future of the HBO show at TheWrap’s 2024 Power Women Summit in Beverly Hills on Dec. 3.
“Well, what I can say is there’s going to be -— my God! — 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],” López revealed, referring to the small town where “Night Country” takes place.
“That said, it’s a new story, new characters, everything.”
“But…” she said, trailing off with a playful pause before adding, “There’s a little bit of joy for the fans of ‘Night Country.’”
López also confirmed that “Night Country” and the upcoming fifth season exist in the same universe as the first three installments of “True Detective.”
“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 it’s connected to the original idea of ‘True Detective,’ of this dark reality behind the scenes of what we think is our reality.”
When asked whether it would be fair to say that we can expect some dark, weird things to be happening in the next season, López told The Post, “Absolutely. Very fair. Really f–ked up stuff.”
While discussing the way “Night Country” positioned indigenous stories at the heart of season 4, López acknowledged that it was not something many fans of the series would have predicted.
“That was the fun of the challenge, you know, to do something that had resonated profoundly with a lot of people and and see how it could stay true to that spirit, but also opened doors to different stories,” she said.
“And I think we got away with that. The reaction was astounding because we got so much love and incredible ratings and a lot of love from the critics.”
“True Detective” was renewed for a fifth season almost immediately after the “Night Country” finale aired in February.
Starring Jodie Foster and Kali Reis, season 4 revived the franchise, which had been dormant since 2019. It attracted more viewers than the first season, led by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in 2014, and earned 19 Emmy nominations, including one win for Foster as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
On Monday, the series received three Golden Globe nominations. Unsurprisingly, HBO asked López to return for season 5.
But despite the success, “Night Country” was not without its detractors. Nic Pizzolatto famously trolled the show he created after season 4 began airing.
“We got a tremendous backlash from the core audience in the first season, especially in the first season, because I think that the a little bit of what a certain sector of the audience loved that was the male presence and the male power in it,” López offered. “And you know, it’s a very different thing than what I did with ‘Night Country.’”
“So we did get a backlash, but it was honestly fun to see too, you know,” she said with a smile.
“I just feel that is very important to say, ‘You can keep what is delicious and wonderful and unique about the story and just open it for different voices.’”
Though López has been busy writing the next chapter of “True Detective,” it’s too soon to tell when season 5 will be released.
In September, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content Casey Bloys confessed he didn’t know when the show will make it to airwaves. If past production timelines are precedent, and if online hypotheses are to be believed, late 2025 may well be the earliest possible release date.
