Where Was ‘True Detective’ Season 4 Filmed?

Each season of True Detective is defined by its three leads: the two actors, and the setting. Ten years since Season 1 premiered and five years since Season 3 concluded, the HBO crime anthology series returns for its fourth season starring Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, and the state of Alaska (hence the subtitle True Detective: Night Country). The previous three seasons were shot mostly on location in Louisiana, California, and the Ozarks, respectively, with each area reflecting and informing the individual story. Season 4 showrunner, director, and writer Issa López, replacing creator Nic Pizzolatto, wanted to return to Season 1’s successful roots (the second and third seasons met with lukewarm receptions) but also try something new. An award-winning filmmaker whose credits include the supernatural horror film Tigers Are Not Afraid, López set her sights on Alaska. “Where True Detective [Season 1] is male and it’s sweaty, Night Country is cold and it’s dark and it’s female,” López told Vanity Fair. Unfortunately, there were many reasons why filming in Alaska wasn’t viable. Armed with an HBO budget, True Detective: Night Country broke with tradition and replicated the snowy territory in a different, if equally cold, place that’s well acquainted with Hollywood.

True Detective

Anthology series in which police investigations unearth the personal and professional secrets of those involved, both within and outside the law.

Release Date

January 12, 2014

Creator

Nic Pizzolatto

Main Genre

Crime

Genres

Crime , Drama , Mystery

Rating

TV-MA

Seasons

4

Studio

HBO

Streaming Service(s)

Max

‘True Detective’ Season 4 Filmed in Iceland

When HBO asked Issa López to lead True Detective Season 4 in Nic Pizzolatto’s stead, Lopez, a fan, revisited the first season. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, and Michelle Monaghan with Cary Joji Fukunaga at the directing helm, True Detective Season 1 was a minor pop culture phenomenon and a critical darling. The next two installments saw a less enthusiastic response. “What was it that in the first season had connected so powerfully? I gave it a lot of thought,” López told Total Film. She concluded the key tenet was “atmosphere,” aka, location. Set in Louisiana, the first season mixed the crime genre with its closest neighbors: noir, horror, and Southern Gothic. Wanting to tap into that same prevailing menace, López asked herself, “What would be the place that would capture that spirit of an American corner forgotten by God where dark things fester?”

López chose Alaska, knowing the bitter cold and endless nights lent themselves well to philosophy, nihilism, and cosmic horror. Shooting a massive production on location wasn’t possible given the territory’s brutal tundra and lack of hospitable space. Humans couldn’t survive the subzero temperatures, and neither would the equipment. “The part of Alaska where we needed to shoot this – which is above the Arctic Circle where the night expands into months – doesn’t have the infrastructure,” López stated. “You reach temperatures of minus 36 Celsius. It gets beyond human endurance…to the point that cameras don’t work.”

Instead, True Detective: Night Country made Iceland its home base. Big budget sets regularly choose Iceland for its flexible and strikingly beautiful landscapes. The country has hosted Game of Thrones, Heart of Stone, Batman Begins, The Fate of the Furious, and Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. The production crew used three main locations — Reykjavík, Akureyri, and Dalvík — to create the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska, and its immediate surroundings. They built a replica Alaskan town from the ground up, including details as small but pivotal as traffic signs, and added extra snow when the weather wasn’t cooperating. “We were very blessed,” Jodie Foster told Icelandair’s Tina Jøhnk Christensen. “The Icelandic crew was amazing. Not only accomplished and skilled, but also very calm and fun.”

Filming ‘True Detective’ in Iceland Was Cold, but Worth It

Shooting in extreme weather includes extreme quirks. If True Detective: Night Country needed more snow in December, then by January, Iceland had no shortage of it — plus freezing temperatures and near-constant darkness. Iceland might not get as cold as Alaska, but if you’re not used to the conditions, then the adjustment period can be brutal. “It doesn’t matter how tough you think it’s going to be,” Issa López said in an interview with the AV Club. “You’re not prepared. […] We shot for 49 nights back-to-back, 120 days total. They do something to you in a beautiful way [and] it just informs the story and feeds the feelings and the way you experience the series.” Filming in the extended dark presented inherent challenges as well; the lack of sun affected how the lighting department lit the sets.

For Jodie Foster, performing through the oppressive cold-night combo was challenging but part of the job. As she told Icelandair, “You get your warm coats, your gloves and warm boots and you get ready for that.” All things considered, the actress said the weather could have been far worse. The wrong kind of arctic storm easily sets a schedule back days, weeks, or more, and can ruin a set designer’s meticulous work. Thankfully, Iceland-doubling-as-Alaska was kind to True Detective Season 4. Plus, some benefits offset the challenges. “Suddenly the northern lights start happening and we all just stop,” Foster said, “and start looking.”

Iceland Was the Right Fit for ‘True Detective’ Season 4

Iceland was the right psychological fit for True Detective: Night Country. The ominously harsh conditions reflected the themes Issa López wove into Season 4, which follows Jodie Foster’s Detective Liz Danvers and Kali Reis’s Agent Evangeline Navarro as they investigate eight research station workers who disappear without explanation. Tapping into inspirational media like the bleak isolation of John Carpenter‘s The Thing and the mental deterioration Stanley Kubrick wove throughout The Shining, López called Iceland “the perfect setting for noir [and] for cosmic horror tinges.” She drew from unexplained historical mysteries as well, specifically the Mary Celeste ship and the Dyatlov Pass tragedy.

Related

The True Story Behind ‘True Detective’ Season 2 Is Weirder Than the Show

The true story of the “phantom city” that inspired ‘True Detective.’

Given the Alaskan setting and how True Detective: Night Country‘s core mystery ties into the fictional case of a missing Indigenous woman, Issa López changed Detective Evangeline Navarro’s heritage from Latina to Iñupiaq. As the showrunner explained to the AV Club, “Because we were going to be dealing with the very delicate subject — a little overused lately — of murdered and missing Indigenous women, [at least] one of the detectives in the series should belong to the culture. Because having white characters to come figure out what went wrong in there, I just don’t believe in that.” Wanting to avoid cultural appropriation and misrepresentation, López and her team heavily consulted with Iñupiat producers and adjusted their approach accordingly.

The Cast and Crew of ‘True Detective’ Season 4 Had a Great Experience

Jodie Foster, for her part, echoed López’s sentiments. Iceland was a sound choice for its appearance and accessibility, but the country perfectly matched the psychological musings at play. “[Night Country is] so much about grief and how the dead walk among us,” she shared, “and the toll on nature that human activity has taken on it, and the idea that that nature could rise up and wake up and fight back in some ways. […] I think those are important things and all of that anxiety is what makes horror film, right?”

True Detective: Night Country marks Foster’s first leading television role and only her second time playing a female detective following her Academy Award-winning performance in The Silence of the Lambs. The actress made close friends while filming True Detective Season 4 and has nothing but praise for Reykjavik’s food, culture, and her time on set. “I’ve never had the experience of making a TV show where it felt so much like a family, with all of us in Reykjavík in the snow, in this brand new city hanging out with each other,” she said. With Night Country debuting months after her role in the biopic film Nyad, Foster told Icelandair, “I’m happier than I’ve ever been, acting.” The same goes for audiences happy to see her return to their screens. Jodie Foster and Kali Reis might have a mystery to solve, but there’s an obvious answer to this combination of Foster, Reis, Issa López, and new True Detective: must-see TV.

True Detective: Night Country premieres January 14 on Max.

Watch on Max