New Trailer for True Detective Season Three Brings the Ozarks into Focus

True Detective season three is just over a month away, and HBO has released an intriguing new trailer for the show’s highly anticipated, Ozarks-set return, one that brings the season’s new characters and setting into focus.

The new season centers on Wayne Hays (Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali), a Northwestern Arkansas state police detective haunted for his entire life by the mysterious disappearance of a young Arkansas boy (Phoenix Elkin) and his sister (Lena McCarthy) in 1980.

As always, the new trailer doesn’t offer much in the way of answers. But while the first trailer, released early last month, helped flesh out the show’s new central mystery, the latest look provides some more insight into the season’s character dynamics. The new trailer gives fans some more time with Selma star Carmen Ejogo, playing Wayne’s love interest and schoolteacher Amelia Reardon, as well as Wayne’s partner, Roland West, played by Stephen Dorff. Fans also get a closer look at the show’s vision of the Ozarks in northwest Arkansas, where the new season was shot on location.

Along with the new trailer, HBO has shared the following synopsis for the show’s forthcoming third season:

In 2015, retired detective Wayne Hays, his memory failing, looks back at the disappearance of 12-year-old Will and ten-year-old Julie Purcell, recalling the days and weeks immediately following the 1980 crime, as well as developments in 1990, when he and his former partner, Roland West, were subpoenaed after a major break in the case.

Filmed at locations throughout northwest Arkansas, the new season of TRUE DETECTIVE was written by series creator Nic Pizzolatto, except for the fourth episode, which he wrote with David Milch (HBO’s “Deadwood”), and the sixth episode, which he wrote with Graham Gordy (CINEMAX’s “Quarry”). Pizzolatto is also making his directorial debut with two episodes; other directors are Jeremy Saulnier (“Hold the Dark”) and Daniel Sackheim (HBO’s “Game of Thrones”).

The first two episodes, which will air back-to-back on HBO and were both directed by Saulnier, are titled “The Great War and Modern Memory” and “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye,” respectively. The third episode is titled “The Big Never,” while the much-anticipated fourth episode, co-written by Milch, goes by “The Hour and the Day.”

True Detective returns to HBO with a two-hour premiere on Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019, at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Watch the trailer below.