Jodie Foster will play badass detective Liz Danvers in the fourth season of True Detective (HBO)

HBO has unveiled the first footage of acting legend Jodie Foster in HBO Max’s highly-anticipated fourth season of True Detective.

The Oscar-winning Silence of the Lambs star will go back to her FBI agent roots as she takes on the role of detective Liz Danvers in True Detective: Night Country, the fourth instalment of the Emmy-winning anthology crime series, which has been on hiatus since season 3 aired in 2019.

In a new sizzle reel showcasing the network’s upcoming 2023 releases, HBO unveiled the first look at Foster’s brooding sleuth, who dons a thick black coat with a high-key camp fur hood and a very stern expression.

The first-look footage also shows the queen of lesbian energy brandishing a gun and battling the elements alongside her co-star and former boxer Kali Reis, who plays detective Evangeline Navarro.

True Detective’s fourth season is based in Alaska, hence the furs, and will follow the two lead detectives as they investigate the strange disappearance of six men working at the Tsalal Arctic Research Station. Along the way, they have to “confront the darkness they carry in themselves and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice,” which is a suitably ominous premise for a show that’s based in Alaska’s winter period of all-day darkness.

There’s a stellar cast lined up for the new season, too. Alongside Foster, the ensemble stars John Hawkes (Deadwood, Winter’s Bone), Christopher Eccleston (The Leftovers), Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve), Finn Bennett (Domina) and Anna Lambe (Three Pines).

Despite already getting a sneak peek, filming for the upcoming season only began last month in Iceland, and a release date is yet to be confirmed.

The two-time Oscar winner has been a little quiet in recent years – while she released her most recent film The Mauritanian in 2021, she only starred in a small handful of films throughout the 2010s. But with her big return to prestige TV, fans will be delighted to have her back on their screens.

HBO’s 2023 preview also gave us another look at the upcoming ‘adult’ Velma series starring Mindy Kaling and lesbian icons Jane Lynch and Wanda Sykes.