Jessica Chastain Offered Lead Role In True Detective Season 2

Thanks to The Help and Zero Dark Thirty, she’s one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood right now, but Jessica Chastain may be migrating to the small screen for her next major acting gig, if HBO has its way. According to Nerdist, True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto, who previously hinted that he is hoping to focus on female detectives in the show’s second season, wants Chastain to take on one of the lead roles and has in fact already offered the part to her.

No word out of Chastain’s camp yet, but that’s certainly a hard offer to walk away from, if Nerdist’s scoop turns out to be true. True Detective will no doubt rank among the best shows of 2014, and it gave Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson some of the best material of their careers. Provided Pizzolatto can make lightning strike twice, a role in True Detective‘s already-assured second season would be a dream gig for any actor or actress.

Still, Chastain’s star is on the rise regardless of whether she takes on True Detective. The actress is getting raves for her performance as the title character in Ned Benson’s two-part The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, and she also has Christopher Nolan’s mysterious Interstellar, historical romance Miss Julie, J.C. Chandor’s crime drama A Most Violent Year and Guillermo del Toro’s horror flick Crimson Peak in the can. Up next for the actress? Lead roles in WWII-set drama The Zookeeper’s Wife, a drama set in a mental hospital called The Secret Scripture, and Andrew Dominik’s Blonde, in which she’ll don a wig to play Marilyn Monroe.

So, Chastain may decide that True Detective is one project too many and leave it to another actress. Still, it’s thrilling just to think of what the stunningly talented actress would do with a brooding, ambitious anthology piece like True Detective, so hopefully HBO and Pizzolatto can convince her to sign on. If Chastain does become officially attached, the next question on everyone’s mind becomes, who would even be capable of standing toe to toe with her? Brad Pitt has been rumored, but what would be really interesting would be to pair Chastain with an equally strong but drastically different dramatic actress. Suggestions, anyone?