Jodie Foster to star in her first major television role on True Detective: Night Country

Silence Of The Lambs actor Jodie Foster is getting ready to solve some mysterious disappearances in the Alaskan wilderness. Deadline reports that Foster has been cast in the lead role for HBO’s fourth season of the acclaimed crime series True Detective, titled True Detective: Night Country.

Foster is set to play Detective Liz Danvers, and the casting marks the first time the actor will have a major starring role on TV. As a child, she had guest appearances on series like Gunsmoke, My Three Sons, and Paper Moon, as well as had voice acting roles later in life on The Simpsons and Frazier. Foster also has behind-the-scenes TV expertise, having directed episodes of Black Mirror, Orange Is The New Black, and House Of Cards.

HBO’s synopsis of the gritty crime drama’s fourth season reads: “When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the six men that operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.” Sounds as dark as Foster’s detective’s probable coffee order.

Joining this season as an executive producer is Oscar winner Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), along with Foster. True Detective: Night Country is being written by Alan Page Arriaga and Issa López (Tigers Are Not Afraid), with López producing and directing the pilot episode. This will mark a big creative change for the series, as creator and original showrunner Nic Pizzolatto doesn’t appear to be involved for the upcoming season.

A bigger mystery than the season itself is when the new series will premiere, as HBO has yet to announce when True Crime: Night Country will air. While you wait, you can catch up on True Detective’s third season, which stars Mahershala Ali as an Arkansas detective on a missing children’s case.