True Detective season 3 casts Fantastic Beasts actress as female lead

The third season of HBO’s True Detective has found its female lead.

After a significant search with several major names under consideration, the anthology thriller has tapped Carmen Ejogo to star alongside Mahershala Ali.

Ejogo has appeared in films ranging from Selma to Alien: Covenant to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — she’s also in next year’s Fantastic Beasts sequel, reprising her role as MACUSA president Seraphina Picquery.

The next installment of True Detective “tells the story of a macabre crime in the heart of the Ozarks, and a mystery that deepens over decades and plays out in three separate time periods.” Ali will play the lead role of Wayne Hays, a state police detective from Northwest Arkansas. Ejogo will play Amelia Reardon, an Arkansas schoolteacher with a connection to two missing children in 1980.

The new season has no premiere date as of yet.