Deadwood Creator May Help Bring True Detective Season 3 To Life

While the first season of HBO's crime thriller True Detective was one of the most acclaimed TV shows of recent years, Season 2 was widely considered to be a disappointment. To date, HBO has not announced a third season, but it has now been reported that creator Nic Pizzolatto is working on new scripts for the show.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Pizzolatto has written "at least the first two episodes" of a potential third season. The site also states that veteran TV producer David Milch (Deadwood, NYPD Blue) is working alongside Pizzolatto.

HBO has yet to formally greenlight True Detective Season 3 or comment on this story.

Last year Michael Lombardo, former president of programming at HBO, 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."

True Detective Season 1 aired in 2014 and starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, while 2015's Season 2 featured Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn, and Rachel McAdams.

Even at its viewer peak, Season 2 fell short of what the first had achieved. The final episode was watched by an audience of 2.73 million in April 2015, a 22% drop from the season one finale a year earlier.