The new season of HBO's critically acclaimed show "True Detective" is likely to have three leads, unlike the first season. The Season 2 is a new story, with all new characters. And, according to reports, the new season cast is expected to be female-centric.

"The characters are all new, but I'm deeply in love with each of them. We've got the entire series broken out with a couple of scripts, and we'll probably start casting in earnest in the coming months," Nic Pizzolatto, creator of "True Detective," said in an interview with NPR's "To The Best Of Our Knowledge," as quoted by Deadline.com.

Earlier in an interview with HitFix, Pizzolatto had said that Season 2 would be about "hard women, bad men and the secret occult history of the United States transportation system."

There is much speculation about the three leads. Deadline.com has published the unofficial descriptions, which are floating around in the cyber-sphere, of these three new characters. The first lead, according to this unofficial description, is a male detective or cop, around 40 in age, with Joaquin Phoenix, Christian Bale and Josh Brolin as prototypes. In addition to a twenty something male cop, there is also a thirty something female detective, with Jessica Chastain as a potential prototype.

There were media reports that Jessica Chastain will be starring in the new season. The actress, however, denied that she is doing "True Detective."

"I love Woody Harrelson, and I'm gonna watch the second season just like I watched every episode of the first," the actress said to Washington Post, as quoted by E! Online. "But I won't be on it."

The Season 2 is set to take place in California, but it will not be Los Angeles. Pizzicato said that the new season will be set in "much lesser known venues of California -- and we're going to try to capture a certain psycho-sphere ambiance of the place, much like we did in season one."

Earlier this month, the media was abuzz with rumours that Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett have been roped in to play the three principal characters of "True Detective" Season 2.