True Detective: 10 Dream Castings For Season 4

Regina King scooped Best Supporting Actress at this year’s Oscars for her powerhouse turn in the moving If Beale Street Could Talk, and while no True Detective fan would begrudge Mahershala Ali’s win the Supporting Actor category, Sam Elliott can feel a little hard done by that his role as the emotionally wounded brother in A Star Is Born left him empty-handed.

In Season 3, following an argument over the case, Stephen Dorff’s Roland just catches himself before he calls Ali’s Hays ‘n***er’. Hays challenges him to say it, but Roland says it’s enough for Hays to know he was thinking it.

King is no stranger to racially charged roles, having featured in The Boondocks as well as Beale Street. Nobility with anger in the face of injustice is something she does incredibly well.

Elliott, meanwhile, is somewhat of a throwback, with the looks, mannerisms... even an aura of years gone by. King and Elliott might clash more than the other partnerships, but that would be an excellent way to shake things up. Both are experts at playing the ‘wounded animal’ archetype in one way or another; it would be fascinating to see them oppose each other in a character-driven story.