Woody Harrelson Rules Out a "True Detective" Return

Time may be a flat circle, but that doesn’t mean you should bet on Woody Harrelson returning to True Detective. As The Hollywood Reporter‘s Katherine Schaffstall writes, Harrelson was recently asked on Today about whether he would be interested in reprising his role as Marty Hart on a future season of the HBO crime drama. Harrelson, in no uncertain terms, shut down talk of a return to the show.

The actor and cannabis shop owner said that he would not be interested in revisiting his character — and for solid artistic reasons. “[I]t turned out great. I love that it turned out the way it did. If anything, doing another season would, I think, tarnish that,” Harrelson told Today.

Earlier in the year, True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto revealed that he had an idea that would reunite the two heroes of the show’s first season. Matthew McConaughey told NME that he would be open to a reunion; Harrelson, evidently, is less interested in the idea.

That doesn’t mean that viewers fond of the artistic collaborators on that debut season won’t have opportunities to see them in a new context. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that McCongaughey and Pizzolatto would work together on a potential Mickey Spillane adaptation; more recently, Variety reported that the actor and writer were teaming with Cole Hauser on a Netflix series.

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Harrelson and McCongaughey also have a project in the works: a series for Apple TV, though production on that series was interrupted earlier this year, according to reporting from Deadline. As for True Detective, a fifth season is in the works, which will see the fourth season’s creator, Issa Lopez, returning for another engagement.