“True Detective: Night Country,” the brand new season of the hit HBO series, premieres on Max this Sunday, bringing a new murder mystery that dabbles in the strange and supernatural.

The new season hails from acclaimed writer/director/showrunner/executive producer Issa López (Tigers Are Not Afraid), who brings her genre-bending talents to the series along with stars Jodie Foster alongside Kali Reis.

Issa López serves as showrunner and writer and directs all episodes of the new season, which centers around the bizarre disappearance of eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station. Detectives Liz Danvers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Reis) will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves and dig into the haunted truths buried under the eternal ice to solve the mystery.

Ahead of the season’s premiere, Bloody Disgusting spoke with López in a roundtable interview, where the filmmaker revealed more of what to expect from the new season.

“Night Country” initially began as a very different project for López, one that organically evolved into the new season of “True Detective.” That doesn’t mean there aren’t any connections to the previous seasons. Expect plenty of nods and Easter eggs ahead, particularly for the first season that began it all.

The filmmaker explains, “I had a very hazy general concept of something I wanted to explore, but there were no tacks in place yet. I had the world, the feeling, and the mystery of what had happened to these men, and then when HBO approached me with the question of, ‘What would you do with True Detective?’ I thought, ‘This is crazy, but this is what I would do.’ Then, the moment that I was given the True Detective of it all, it became clear that I could take the things that excited me about that first season: the two characters, the focus on the landscape behind them, the supernatural tones… and it just completely clicked with what I had.”

López continues, “What I kept about it is that there’s a bunch of winks to the first season, from characters that are related to characters in that first season to the beer they drink to the long drives where the two characters explore their own visions of the universe that are completely opposed, to some things that happen in Episode Six that you will see in time. But it is a love letter, in a way, to all the things that really worked in that first season.”

Those familiar with López’s Tigers Are Not Afraid know that her ghosts, though ominous, give a voice to the voiceless. That applies here, too, though in a much different setting and context.

The showrunner says of her ghosts this season, “Well, I have learned that we’re not alone. We walk, and we carry the people that we have lost. I believe that, and I saw that in the first True Detective, Cohle had a daughter, and we see her. I thought it was the perfect environment; this town at the end of the world where reality is coming apart at the seams, and sometimes we can peek through the fabric of things, and you can see the dead walking with you.”

Her lead characters, Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro, represent two opposites: a believer and a skeptic. But that’s not always the case as the season progresses, and the oft-stubborn Danvers is more open to the world’s possibilities than she initially lets on. When asked whether that’s an extension of herself and what it was like to write for veteran actor Jodie Foster, López shed more light on the interesting dynamics at play between her leads this season.

“It is absolutely a reflection of me,” López tells us. “I think that what makes these two characters fascinating is that one of them represents the non-believer that in moments of doubt believes, and the other one is the believer that in moments of doubt doubts. And both of them are, I think, all of us. I think that the ones of us who are believers have our moments of doubt, and the ones of us who are non-believers have our moments of faith. And it’s fascinating to see characters that dance between these two sides.

“Writing for Jodie Foster was a delight. She will always question every decision in the most wonderful way and make you think again about what you’re doing. But you also know that when you’re writing a scene that is funny or poignant or is bitter or angry, nobody’s going to be able to deliver it the way she will, and she will blow your mind every single time. Honestly, she’s spoiled me. I don’t think I can work with anybody else after her. It’s over.”

Just how far “Night Country” veers into supernatural territory, according to its showrunner, is ultimately up to the viewer.

López explains, “The thing with this series, as was the case with Tigers, is that there’s a read of the events in the series, same as with the original True Detective, by the way, that absolutely sticks to reality. There’s a real explanation for every single event in the series that does not require the presence of the supernatural. But there’s a read where every event is related to what I call a wider world, and it’s up to you, like an inkblot test, to decide which series you’re watching. Or maybe it’s mostly of one with touches of the other, but it’s your decision. So in that way, it’s a really interesting position and read that this world, this town, exists right at the edge, between here and whatever is beyond.”

“True Detective: Night Country” premieres January 14, 2024 on Max.