Matthew McConaughey Says He's "Open" To More 'True Detective'

Not to get your hopes up too much, but the very positive reception for True Detective has changed the mind of one of its stars with respect to the idea of coming back. Matthew McConaughey once said he was attracted to True Detective because it was a "one and done" series. And we know that the second season will feature a trio of new leads, with the show built around new characters. But now McConaughey says he would be "open" to doing more. 

Speaking to Deadline, the actor had a long conversation about the show. Let's start with his comments about where the interest in making it came from:

The director, Cary Fukunaga, well I was a big fan of Sin Nombre. The fact that it was going to be those two, Nic [Pizzolatto, writer] and Cary, through all eight episodes? I would have been more scared if I was going to do something on TV with different directors and writers coming in. One director, one showrunner for a finite series made it feel like I was making a 450-page movie. As for TV, you don't feel you are walking the plank anymore. The quality of drama on the small screen often surpasses the quality on the big screen now. I wasn't approaching this thinking, "What is my image going to be and how might it change?" It was, "Let me find quality, and then go and do quality."

But he says doing one season "was always how I saw it." There was an appeal to doing something with "a finite beginning, middle and end, goodbye, look forward to watching it." And at the time, there was no way he would have signed a multi-year thing.

If HBO had wanted an option on me for a Season 2 or 3, I wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't have walked into something where they could say, "We've got you for the next three years."

But here's where hopes get elevated.

I liked True Detective, the whole series and the experience of making it, so much that I'd be open to doing another one now. At the time, I was looking at six months and not beyond that. I don't know of a feature film I'd sign for where I'm going to say, "If this works, you've got me whenever you want me for the next three years."

What does this mean for the future? Hard to say. It probably won't have any bearing on the second season of the show, but it does raise hopes that we might see Rust Cohle return at some point in the future.