The first teaser for Season 3 of True Detective involved a lot of shots of Mahershala Ali staring intensely—into the distance, at other people, even directly into the camera. Now we have a little plot to go along with those long gazes, as a new trailer reveals a horrific crime involving two children that haunts Ali’s character. As we learned earlier this year, the new season, which also stars Stephen Dorff and Carmen Ejogo, will span three different timelines and take place in the Ozarks. (Will Jason Bateman show up? What is this, a crossover episode?)
The first two episodes of the new season were directed by Jeremy Saulnier, with Daniel Sackheim and True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto taking over for the remaining episodes. The trailer looks and feels a lot more like the critically acclaimed first season of the show starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, which is probably no accident, since Season 2 didn’t get such favorable reviews.
Time may be a flat circle, but Season 3 premieres on HBO on Jan 13.
