Jodie Foster is HBO’s new ‘True Detective’ in return to crime roots

“The Silence of the Lambs” star Jodie Foster is joining HBO’s “True Detective” franchise.

Foster, 59, will executive produce and star in the series’ fourth installment, “True Detective: Night Country,” Deadline reported.

This marks Foster’s first major TV role as an adult.

“When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the six men that operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace,” HBO explained in the official description of the story. “To solve the case, detectives Liz Danvers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.”

Issa López will write and direct the show and Barry Jenkins will also executive produce the anthology installment.

Two-time Oscar-winner Foster was only 12 years old when she had her debut role in “Taxi Driver.” She appeared in several series, including “Gunsmoke,” “My Three Sons” and ABC’s TV spinoff of “Paper Moon,” but has not had a lead role on TV since 1975. But she is often remembered as FBI trainee Clarice Starling in Jonathan Demme’s 1991 thriller “The Silence of the Lambs,” which co-starred Anthony Hopkins.

Foster stayed busy behind the camera, lending her voice to “Frasier,” “The X-Files” and “The Simpsons” and directed episodes of “Orange Is the New Black,” “Black Mirror,” and “Tales From the Loop.”

“True Detective” has previously drawn in A-list film stars including Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff, among others.

The show does not yet have a release date.