True Detective Season 2: Here’s What We Know So Far

Another day, another True Detective casting rumor.

While it seems like every major actor in Hollywood has been attached to star in the follow-up to Nic Pizzolatto's crime drama, it looks like HBO is finally zeroing in on the leads for True Detective's sophomore season.

Though boldface names like Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain were bandied about during the earliest stages of casting, the most recent rumors suggest that Vince Vaughn, Elisabeth Moss, Colin Farrell, and Taylor Kitsch are all nearing deals to star.

Plot details for the highly anticipated second season have also begun to emerge, and once again, the show will use an occult murder to set the wheels in motion.

According to The Wrap, the second season "will follow the death of Ben Caspar, the corrupt city manager of a fictional California city who's found brutally murdered amid a potentially groundbreaking transportation deal that would forever change freeway gridlock in the state. Three law enforcement officers from different cities and branches of the government are tasked with finding out who did it. They soon discover their investigation has much broader and darker implications than they initially thought.

"Caspar's 52-year-old corpse is found on a lonely stretch of Pacific Coast Highway near Big Sur — satanic symbols etched on his chest. It turns out he had a penchant for rough sex and may have been involved in the occult."

Though it looks like Pizzolatto has once again crafted a sinister whodunnit that examines the darker corners of religion and government, the second season likely won't be a two-hander in the same way the first season was, which featured Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as detectives Rust Cohle and Martin Hart.

While Vaughan is expected to take on the part of a shady businessman with corrupt political leanings, the other three leads are said to be on the right side of the law, which is a complete departure from the first season's buddy cop dynamic.

Moss is expected to play Ani Bezzerides, a hardscrabble Monterey sheriff with a taste for booze and gambling. Farrell's Ray Velcoro is another troubled investgator, who has been "damaged by years of turmoil in both his personal and professional lives." Sounds like Rust version 2.0 to us. Rounding out the trio of gumshoes would be Kitsch's Paul Woodrugh, a headstrong ex-military man turned highway patrol officer with his own set of demons.

HBO is currently said to be looking at a small roster of directors to shoot the second season, another departure from the first season, which was helmed entirely by Cary Fukunaga. New Zealand auteur Andrew Dominik (Killing Them Softly, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) was reportedly approached, but turned down the offer due to scheduling issues.

Though no stars have officially signed on, and a premiere date still not set, all the recent smoke surrounding True Detective's second season, suggests that a fire is going to erupt very, very soon. (The Wrap)