It’s official: Mahershala Ali has been cast in HBO’s True Detective Season 3, Entertainment Weekly reported. It was speculated earlier this month that the Academy Award-winning actor might be hitting the small screen with the popular crime series, but his deal had not yet gone through at that point.
HBO’s programming president, Casey Bloys, announced the news at the Television Critics Association’s press tour this week. Bloys revealed that he has already read five scripts for the third season. “I’m very impressed and excited about what I’ve read,” Bloys commented. “I don’t want to give away the storyline, but I really think they’re terrific.” The programming president also said that HBO has moved on to the next step of searching for potential directors for Season 3.
Cary Joji Fukunaga was the sole director for Season 1, which many have attributed to the success of the first season. During the less popular second season, HBO had opted to go for multiple directors. It is not yet confirmed if the network will choose Season 1’s sole director route or a more conventional multi-director approach.
Mahershala Ali has starred in many impressive projects lately, especially in last year’s film Moonlight, for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Recent television roles include playing Remy Danton on House of Cards and Cottonmouth on Luke Cage.
Nic Pizzolatto, who served as writer and showrunner for seasons 1 and 2, has been working with David Milch (Deadwood, NYPD Blue) on the True Detective Season 3 scripts. The showrunner for Season 3 has not yet been announced.
Ali is expected to play one of the leads in the upcoming season of True Detective, but no other plot details have been released. All episodes of True Detective Seasons 1 and 2 can be seen on HBO’s online streaming services.
