I am very, very excited for True Detective Season 2, even if it’s going to be significantly different than the masterful first season. The biggest difference this year is that there will be multiple directors, in contrast to Cary Fukunaga helming every episode of Season 1. And now creator/writer Nic Pizzolatto has revealed another difference between the two seasons: his initial plan to delve into the “secret occult history of the U.S. transportation system” has been discarded, he says in an interview with Medium:

“There’s definitely bad men and hard women, but no secret occult history of the U.S. transportation system. That was a comment from very early in the process, and something I ended up discarding in favor of closer character work and a more grounded crime story. The complexity of the historical conspiracy first conceived detracted from the characters and their reality, I felt, and those characters are ultimately what have to shape the world and story. So I moved away from that.”

rachel-mcadams-doctor-strange
Image via HBO

That’s kind of a bummer, because secret occult history of the U.S. transportation system! But given the expectations of topping the first season, I understand Pizzolato wanting to move further away from points of comparison. The creator also reveals that this season won’t have a fractured structure, like Season 1, and is instead more linear, though he does promise an alternative to the occult aspect:

“The gothic horror suggested by Louisiana’s coastal landscape didn’t feel appropriate in this place. These new landscapes have their own unique voice and their own unsettling qualities. While there’s nothing occult in this season, I think there’s a disconcerting psychology to this world, and its characters have other kinds of uncanny reality with which to contend.”

So, in short, we should really not expect Season 2 to be much like Season 1. As a fan of Pizzolato’s writing I’m pretty OK with that—Season 1 stands on its own as a brilliant stretch of storytelling—and I look forward to seeing what new angles he explores under the guise of True Detective in the second season.


As we await the show’s premiere on June 21st on HBO, check out a collection of new character posters via Facebook. Season 2 stars Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, and Taylor Kitsch.

true-detective-season-2-poster-colin-farrell

true-detective-season-2-poster-vince-vaughn


true-detective-season-2-poster-rachel-mcadams

true-detective-season-2-poster-taylor-kitsch