HBO took their time putting together the appropriate production team and cast for the 3rd season of a True Detective series in dire need of a rejuvenation. True Detective's celebrated 1st season succeeded because actors like Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson were able to add harrowing dimensions to the characters they portrayed, pushing the series past the tropes of the "crime drama" television. HBO is banking on the same results in the series' third iteration, by casting actors with the same "thoroughbred" pedigree -- actors like Mahershala Ali who've won Academy Awards.
Mahershala joined a cast that includes Stephen Dorff, Ray Fisher, Carmen Ejogo, Jodie Balfour, and Rhys Wakefield, whereas Jeremy Saulnier and Daniel Sackheim shared the directorial chair throughout the conception phase of Season 3.
As is generally the custom with the True Detective series, each season exists within its own anthologized universe. With that being said, Season 3 departs from the "fictionalized" account of Ventura, California's and the issue of municipal corruption. In place of a "neo-noir" counterplot in Season 2, we find Season 3's main protagonist (played by Mahershala Ali), ensnared in the complexities of a cold case, as convoluted as the 1st, based on our first impression of the above trailer.
Keep it peeled for the HBO premiere in January 2019.