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Nicolas Cage Lets It Slip: He’s Headed to ‘True Detective’ Season 5
At New York Comic Con, the actor all but confirmed he’ll lead the next season of HBO’s crime anthology, playing a New York detective in a Jamaica Bay mystery from “Night Country” showrunner Issa López. Nicolas Cage has never been great at keeping secrets, and on Saturday he didn’t try very hard. Speaking at a spotlight panel at New York Comic Con at the Javits Center, he told the crowd, “I think I might do a season of ‘True Detective.’” As fans cheered, he added, “That’s okay that I’m the first to announce that, right?” HBO declined to comment. But the remark all but confirms what has been reported since August: Cage is set to lead the fifth season of HBO’s crime anthology. He reportedly plays Henry Logan, a New York detective working the case at the center of the new season. Cage also explained the move. He told the crowd he can only make so many movies back to back, and that he would probably do another season of television. “I think I might do a season of ‘True Detective.’ That’s okay that I’m the first to announce that, right?” — Nicolas Cage, at New York Comic Con Jamaica Bay The new season is set around Jamaica Bay, the sprawl of marshland, islands and open water on the edge of Queens and Brooklyn, in the shadow of JFK Airport. It’s a corner of New York that rarely shows up on screen, which may be exactly the point. Issa López, who created and ran the fourth season, “True Detective: Night Country,” is back as writer and showrunner under her overall deal with HBO. She has said the new season lives in the same world as her last one, with more references back to it. “It’s the same universe, and the magical realism is my brand, so it will be there,” López said. That’s a promising sign for HBO. “Night Country,” which starred Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as investigators working a cold case in the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska, drew 12.7 million cross-platform viewers, the most-watched season in the show’s history, according to Variety. A lineage of leads Cage joins a heavy list. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson defined the show in its 2014 debut. Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams led season 2, Mahershala Ali anchored season 3, and Jodie Foster led season 4. Each season has a new story, a new setting and new detectives, which has made casting the lead one of the bigger events on TV. Why Cage fits The casting lands in the middle of one of the great late-career runs in Hollywood. After years of direct-to-video work, Cage has reminded audiences what he can do with films like “Pig,” in which he played a grieving chef searching for his stolen truffle pig, the self-mocking “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” the dark comedy “Dream Scenario” and the horror hit “Longlegs,” in which he played a serial killer opposite a young FBI agent. That last one feels especially relevant. “True Detective” at its best is part police procedural and part fever dream, and López’s season leaned hard into the supernatural. Few actors can move between quiet grief and full-volume strangeness the way Cage can. Put him in a fog-soaked New York marsh with a case that may not be entirely of this world, and it’s easy to imagine something memorable. It also continues his move into television. Cage has been slated to lead a live-action Spider-Man Noir series, his first starring TV role, making “True Detective” his second. What we don’t know Plenty. HBO hasn’t officially confirmed Cage’s casting, and there’s no word yet on the rest of the cast, when production starts or when the season will premiere. The plot is under tight wraps, too. But after Saturday, the biggest piece is out in the open. And it came straight from Cage himself, who seemed perfectly happy to be the one to spill it.