Setting for True Detective season 5 revealed as HBO gears up for production

We're not in Alaska anymore. True Detective changes its setting for the fifth season. The upcoming fifth season of HBO's Emmy-winning crime anthology series True Detective - and the second with Issa López as writer/showrunner - continues. It's also moving to another state, HBO's Head of Drama Series and Film Francesca Orsi said during an interview at the season three premiere of The White Lotus.

“It’s set in New York, in Jamaica Bay,” Orsi said. “Issa has a lot to say, not unlike she did with Night Country. It’s a different milieu but just as powerful.”



Filming for the new season is scheduled for the coming months and casting is in the preliminary stages.

“I’m really excited about it. We have a small writers room going with Issa; she’s excited,” Orsi said. “We just gave notes on the first two episodes, the entire season. Honestly, I can’t wait for this to go. It’s all about casting and getting this ready.”

The new season will start in 2027, Orsi said.

True Detective: Night Country, the fourth season in the anthology, stars Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as detectives who dig into the haunting truths buried beneath the eternal ice to solve the disappearance of the eight men who run the Tsalal Arctic Research Station in Ennis, Alaska. Foster won an Emmy for her work.

Lopez told the New York Post in December that “there’s going to be some important connections between everything that happens in Ennis, Alaska, and the characters in Ennis, Alaska, and what happens in the new [season]. That said, it’s a new story, new characters, everything.”