True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has an idea for the franchise that would return it to its roots. 

During a recent appearance on the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast, Pizzolatto revealed he has an idea for a “story” that would reprise Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson’s characters from season one of the crime drama. Notably, the two stars led the first season of True Detective before the series went on to star a new batch of actors in every following installment. 

“I actually have another story for Cohle and Hart that, who knows, maybe we’ll do it one day,” he said, adding that while he hasn’t put pen to paper on the idea, they’ve had conversations “about getting back together and doing it” and both McConaughey and Harrelson “are open to it.”

“It’s not something I’ve written or anything, it’s just in my head, and we’ve talked about getting back together and doing it,” he added. “I think the guys are open to it, it’s just a question of whether that would ever happen or not.” 

After a rocky second season and a third season that restored faith in the franchise, Pizzolatto’s deal with HBO expired and he stepped away from True Detective to pursue another project. Issa López took over as the writer for Night Country, the franchise’s fourth season, which became its most-watched reiteration with 12.7 million viewers per episode, topping Pizzolatto’s first season (11.9 million).

While Pizzolatto is no longer associated with True Detective, he notably teamed up with McConaughey and Harrelson where they respectively reprised their roles of Rustin Cohle and Martin Hart for an ad for True to Texas that urged the state’s legislation to create incentives to draw in more film and TV productions.