True Detective Season 2 Release Date, Cast News: Colin Farrell to Star in HBO Series After Christian Bale Turned Down Offer (VIDEO)

There are reports that claim Colin Ferrell will star as the protagonist after Christian Bale apparently turn down the role in the upcoming second season of HBO's hit series True Detective.

According to a Deadline report, the 38-year-old Irish actor is currently "deep in negotiations" to star as one of three main characters in the next season.

In addition, Brad Pitt, Josh Brolin, Taylor Kitsch, Jessica Chastain and Michael Fassbender are some of the actors rumored to appear on the series in lead roles.

"Brad's name has come up many times, it's just a matter of what his other commitments are," said an unidentified source to HollywoodLife.com a few months ago, "It's the show everyone wants to be on, because the writing and the roles are just so exquisite and complex. Brad has tight relations with HBO - he teamed up with Ryan Murphy last year to produce the HBO movie The Normal Heart. I know everyone would be thrilled to have him onboard."

HBO has not made any comments regarding the cast rumors, but there should be information regarding the new actors that will replace Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in the next season before the show returns, most likely early next season.

In Season 1, Detective Rustin Spencer "Rust" Cohle (played by McConaughey) and Detective Martin Eric "Marty" Hart's (Harrelson) task was to stop mass murders linked to Satanism in rural Louisiana, which led to the identity of the serial killer "The Yellow King" to be revealed.

In a previous interview, True Detective series creator and writer Nic Pizzolatto revealed what viewers can expect to see in Season 2 of the hit HBO show.

"Right now we're working with three leads," said Pizzolatto on the "To the Best of Our Knowledge" radio show, "It takes place in California - not Los Angeles, but some of the much lesser known venues of California - and we're going to capture a certain psychosphere ambiance of the place, much like we did in season one."

Like Season 1, it is assumed that Season 2 of True Detective will return in January (2015), but the official release date has not yet been announced yet.