World Literature

After a thrilling freshman season, HBO’s True Detective has become one of TV’s most talked about series and viewers are waiting on bated breath for season 2 details. In the meantime, the show has been racking up critical acclaim – including five nomination spots in the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey are both nominated), Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. We’ll know soon (from the time of this writing) how many of those nominations HBO can turn into wins but don’t expect the show’s creator and writer (Nic Pizzolatto) to rest on his laurels.

Pizzolatto is already hard at work preparing for True Detective‘s sophomore season – which will follow a different case and, in keeping with the series’ outside-the-box thinking, an entirely new cast of actors. As a result, there has been a lot of speculation (and some genuinely funny memes) regarding who will appear in True Detective season 2 and under what pretense. Fortunately, it sounds as though concrete answers are on the way – as Michael Lombardo, Programming Director at HBO, offered up new details that line-up well with existing rumors.

While attending the Edinburgh TV Festival (via ) Lombardo commented on HBO’s production timeline for season 2, revealing a window for when the series is scheduled to return: “We’re going to start shooting in September for it to air next summer.” Given that True Detective season 1 debuted at the beginning of January (2014), fans will undoubtedly be disappointed to hear that HBO is waiting until summer of 2015 to premiere the next chapter.

That said, a protracted delay between season 1 and 2 of a cable series is par for the course in TV land – especially since True Detective is set to drastically alter its formula. Certainly, viewers would have loved to see season 2 in January 2015 but it would have been an incredible stretch for the creative talent working behind the scenes. Not to mention, now that True Blood is finishing up its run, HBO can plug True Detective into the supernatural series’ high profile summer programming slot.

Speaking on the pressure of following-up the critically acclaimed first season, Lombardo asserts that Pizzolatto has found his groove and, in spite of working from a completely blank page, has actually upped his game for season 2:

“When you have a success like True Detective it’s challenging, less for us and more for someone like Nic, how to face the page again and start afresh and not be haunted by the success of the show you’ve just done. But the writing is better than last season. It’s exceptional.”