True Detective: Night Country: Release date, plot and trailer for new season

Anthology crime drama True Detective is back in 2024 with a gritty new tale that looks set to bring the show back to its dark roots.

Landing on the scene with a sinister splash back in 2014, season one stars Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey delivered a memorable dose of small-screen drama by playing small-town cops interlinked by a series of bizarre occult killings.

A Californian set sequel series followed in 2015, this time featuring Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn as police detectives investigating a batch of crimes linked to the murder of a crooked politician. In 2019, a third series brought the action to the Ozarks, with Moonlight star Mahershala Ali and Ray Fisher trying to crack a case involving missing children, with help from Stephen Dorff.

While each has been popular in its own right, none have quite managed to recapture the hype of True Detective’s original outing… until now. With True Detective: Night Country taking the series into bleak territory, anticipation is already high for the show’s fourth series.

Here’s everything we know about it so far…

True Detective: Night Country release date

The first True Detective series to come with its own subtitle, Night Country will arrive on HBO in the US on 14 January, 2024, followed by Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK on Monday, 15 January 2024.

New episodes will be released weekly with each instalment available at the same time as the US at 2am, and on demand thereafter.

The series is produced by director Barry Jenkins and is the first True Detective outing not to be written by show creator Nic Pizzolatto, instead penned by Issa López.

True Detective: Night Country plot

Taking viewers deep into the icy depths of Alaska, True Detective: Night Country is set in the fictional snowy town of Ennis and follows two cops as they try to crack a case involving men missing from an isolated research station.

According to the series’ official synopsis, “When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Reis) will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.”

Based on the show’s early trailers, True Detective’s latest iteration looks like it imbues the series with a creepy, almost paranormal edge as Danvers and Navarro are forced deeper and deeper down a bizarre rabbit hole in order to get to the bottom of their investigation.

True Detective: Night Country cast

Known for its eye-catching casts, the newest series of True Detective is led by Jodie Foster as Detective Danvers, with former pro-boxer-turned-actor Kali Reis joining as her partner Navarro.

British actor Christopher Eccleston, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, John Hawkes, Harry Potter actress Fiona Shaw, The Nevers’ Finn Bennett and Pet Sematary: Bloodlines star Isabella Star LaBlanc are also set to star in the six-part series.

True Detective: Night Country trailer

The chilly final trailer for True Detective: Night Country was released by Sky in December. Watch it below.

The first trailer for True Detective: Night Country was released in February 2023, back when the show was originally slated for a winter release date.

Aesthetically, this first look appeared as cold and bleak as the case it was looking to solve, taking viewers into a remote town where a mystery awaits.

Released in late September alongside the show’s newly-updated release date, the second trailer for True Detective series four amped-up the creepy — and the anxiety.

As its score ramped up in intensity, Danvers and Navarro are pulled further into a deadly situation full of blood and ice.

True Detective: Night Country starts on Monday, 15 January 2024 on Sky Atlantic and NOW with new episodes released weekly.