True Detective Season 3 Teaser Trailer Has Finally Arrived

Three years after HBO rolled out the second season of its Nic Pizzolatto-created series True Detective, the network has, at long last, given fans of the anthology crime drama the first look at the third season. 

HBO revealed the teaser trailer for True Detective season 3 following the gripping finale of the psychological thriller miniseries Sharp Objects on Sunday, August 26. 

Top-lined by Mahershala Ali as Northwest Arkansas Investigator Detective Wayne Hays, the new season of True Detective is set in the Ozarks and follows a dark crime involving two missing children and a mystery that spans across three distinct time periods. The footage mostly focuses on Ali's Wayne, who describes his brain as "a bunch of missing pieces," and gives us glimpses at Carmen Ejogo's character Amelia Reardon, a school teacher, and Stephen Dorff as Wayne's partner, Arkansas State Investigator Roland West. While Wayne and Roland are deeply entrenched in the case given the nature of their work, Amelia also has a surprising connection that links her to the lost kids. 

Of course, no crime on True Detective is ever what it seems — so the case at hand is hardly one just centered on missing children. The True Detective season 3 teaser hints that Wayne will spend the majority of his adult life obsessed with (or at least noticeably distracted by thoughts of) the case, as he's seen sitting at a kitchen table in his later years, sporting gray hair, a wrinkled face, and a pair of glasses. 

"Before you ever knew me, I wasn't scared much. That wasn't a fear for me. Things I've seen. Things I know," Ali's Wayne says in the trailer. "My job... There's no certainty. This peace... is more hauntin' than anything. I want to know the whole story."

Based on this first-look trailer, we're not so certain Wayne will ever get the information he longs for, the closure he desires, or the peace of mind he desperately needs. But also judging by this new footage, we're more confident now than ever that True Detective season 3 could be a hit. 

After its groundbreaking freshman season, which starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as Louisiana State Police homicide detectives who followed a serial killer for 17 years, True Detective had a lot to prove with its second turn. Unfortunately, the series took a nosedive with the Rachel McAdams-led second season, falling into the sophomore slump and failing to live up to sky-high expectations. While True Detective season 3 may not reach the same level of greatness as season 1, it seems to include some of the same elements as its predecessor: a multi-decade time setting, a gritty backdrop, a pair of grizzled detectives and a woman who may get between them, and a ton of conflicting emotion and dark personal reflection. This could end up working in the new season's benefit — one would hope, at least.

Until True Detective season 3 premieres in January of 2019 and we can see how things really play out, mark us down as less worried but still a smidge skeptical.