True Detective Season 3 Has Been Greenlit

The third season of HBO's True Detective has been greenlit. It has been confirmed that the network is officially moving forward with Season 3 of the acclaimed cop drama, with Oscar-winning Moonlight star Mahershala Ali in the lead role.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show's creator Nic Pizzolatto has written the entire season, with the exception of one episode, which will have a script by Deadwood's David Milch. It was first reported that Pizzolatto was working on a new season back in March, and Ali was announced as the show's new star in July, despite the fact that it was not yet greenlit. Ali is also known for House of Cards, Luke Cage, and the Hunger Games movies.

THR reports that True Detective Season 3 will tell the story of a "macabre crime in the heart of the Ozarks and a mystery that deepens over decades and plays out in three separate time periods." Ali is to play "Wayne Hays, a state police detective from Northwest Arkansas."

The new season will be directed by Jeremy Saulnier, who previously helmed the acclaimed thillers Green Room and Blue Ruin, and like Season 1 and 2, it will be a self-contained story. In a statement, Pizzolatto said "I'm tremendously thrilled to be working with artists at the level of Mahershala and Jeremy. I hope the material can do justice to their talents, and we're all very excited to tell this story." A premiere date for True Detective Season 3 is currently unknown.

While Season 1 of True Detective was one of 2014's most talked-about TV shows, Season 2 was a disappointment in terms of both viewing figures and critical reaction. Last year Michael Lombardo, HBO's former president of programming, spoke about the negative reaction to Season 2: "When we tell somebody to hit an air date as opposed to allowing the writing to find its own natural resting place--when it's ready, when it's baked--we've failed," he admitted. "And I think in this particular case, the first season of True Detective was something that Nic Pizzolatto had been thinking about, gestating, for a long period of time. He's a soulful writer.

"I think what we did was go, 'Great.' And I take the blame. I became too much of a network executive at that point. We had huge success. 'Gee, I'd love to repeat that next year.'

"Well, you know what? I set him up to deliver, in a very short time frame, something that became very challenging to deliver.. That's not what that show is. He had to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Find his muse. And so I think that's what I learned from it. Don't do that anymore."