True Detective Season 3's First Trailer Is A Serious Return-To-Form

The first trailer for True Detective Season 3 is here. HBO's detective anthology series returns to the network in January 2019, and this first promo certainly looks like the makers are trying to recapture the intensity of the first season after a disappointing Season 2.

The trailer doesn't really give much away, but it shows that, like Season 1, the show will be set across multiple time periods. Oscar-winning star Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Luke Cage, House of Cards) plays a cop named Wayne Hays who must uncover a mystery that spans several decades in the sprawling landscape of the Ozarks. It looks dark, weird, and gripping--check the trailer out above.

True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has written the entire season, with Deadwood creator David Milch lending a hand. The cast also includes Ray Fisher (Justice League), Carmen Ejogo (Alien: Covenant), Scoot McNairy (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), and Stephen Dorff (Blade).

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. It was unclear if there would be a third season for some time, and three years will have past since Season 2 by the time the new one premieres.

In a recent interview with Indiewire, Pizzolatto spoke about the striking setting for Season 3 and explained that the surroundings were vital to the season's story. "The mystery of the deep woods," he said. "The fog over the mountains. The rivers. The water. The sense of scale when you get out to some of this nature. Also, what the buildings say about the lives behind them. I feel like people will see it as an extension of character, something that embodies characters' emotional journeys while influencing those journeys."

"Sometimes we found things that seem to come straight out of the imagination, like this particular house that I don't want to go into it too much because of spoilers, but once we found it we couldn't believe it existed. It was almost exactly what I had written, and it needed to be very specific."