True Detective season 4 in the works from Barry Jenkins

Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey in True Detective

(Image credit: HBO)

True Detective season 4 is in development at HBO, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk director Barry Jenkins is currently on board as executive producer, while Mexican filmmaker Issa López is penning the script for the new installment, as well as executive producing, and would direct the pilot if the season moves forward.

The anthology crime series first aired in 2014, with season 2 following in 2015 and season 3 arriving in 2019. The cast changes with every season and has included big names like Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, and Mahershala Ali.

Each season also has its own self-contained plot, although all have centered around detectives investigating gruesome crimes. The first season earned 12 Emmy nominations (and took home five awards), while the series as a whole has been nominated 20 times.

This isn't Jenkins' first small-screen project – the filmmaker helmed an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Underground Railroad for Prime Video, which was released in 2021. He also directed an episode of the Netflix series Dear White People.

Series creator Nic Pizzolatto is not expected to return for season 4, which is currently titled True Detective: Night Country. Pizzolatto parted ways with the project back in 2020, and has since penned the screenplay for The Guilty, a Netflix movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

While we wait to see what happens with True Detective season 4, fill out your watch list with our picks of the best TV shows of 2021.

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.