According to The Hollywood Reporter, Woody Harrelson (The People vs. Larry Flynt, Natural Born Killers) states that although he was happy with his work on True Detective, he has no interest in reprising his role as Detective Marty Hart in future installments of the HBO series.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, during the third hour of NBC’s Today show on Friday, Dylan Dreyer (Today 3rd Hour, Diving in with Dylan) asked Harrelson if he would ever return to True Detective. She pointed out that his co-star Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club, Magic Mike) recently said he was open to returning. McConaughey played Detective Rust Cohle in the first season of the series.
“He actually said that he would be into it, ‘If Woody and I think it’s good enough. It wouldn’t even be a choice,’” Dreyer said of McConaughey’s recent comments via The Hollywood Reporter.
“Matthew’s so funny, but in fairness, never,” Harrelson responded via The Hollywood Reporter. “Not a chance.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, he went on to explain there was a specific reason why he didn’t want to reprise his role on True Detective. “Because it turned out great. I love that it turned out the way it did,” he said. “If anything, doing another season would, I think, tarnish that.”
As per The Hollywood Reporter, although Harrelson doesn’t plan to return to True Detective he stated that he is working with McConaughey in the near future. “We are doing something together and this is a comedy, half-hour, and hopefully people dig it,” Harrelson said without revealing any further information. Harrelson shut down the idea of returning to True Detective just weeks after McConaughey revealed what it would take for him to return to the series.
“We’re pretty excited about the idea, but there’s no script yet. When I read the original True Detective script and everything Rust Cohle said … it was fire. It was so good that a sequel would have to take it a step further,” he told NME earlier in October via The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re all thrilled by the idea, but for now it’s just an idea. However, if creator Nic Pizzolatto writes something that Woody or I think is really good, saying no wouldn’t even be an option.”