Mahershala Ali set hearts aflutter when he announced on Instagram last week that he'll star in the probable, but not-yet-official third season of HBO's True Detective.

The network later confirmed it struck a deal with the Moonlight Oscar winner (and Internet boyfriend), whose casting earned a big thumbs up from people on Twitter and Season 1 headliner Matthew McConaughey.

McConaughey and Woody Harrelson both earned Emmy nominations for their work on the anthology crime drama's critically-acclaimed first season, in which they played mismatched cops investigating a prostitute's murder. Although no additional casting or details have been announced for Season 3, the Dark Tower actor tells USA TODAY that Ali is a good match for series creator Nic Pizzolatto.

"I think it's awesome," McConaughey says. "I worked with (Ali) on Free State (of Jones) and he'll be a great fit, because I know whatever's coming out of Nic's writing mind, it's heady and hardcore. It's a very harsh reality. Mahershala's got heavy feet. He's grounded and rooted, and doesn't have (an) attitude. There's no room for attitude in Nic's writing."

The future of True Detective was in question after the show's second season, which starred Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams, and was met with a general shrug from critics in summer 2015. Asked why he believes it wasn't embraced like the first, McConaughey politely demurs.

"I got theories, but I'm not going to share them here — that's just fodder for fire," McConaughey says. "I look forward to whatever comes out of Nic Pizzolatto's mind. We had great success. I really liked the first season a lot and there's a lot about the second season that I enjoyed as well."

McConaughey has been on a career hot streak since winning an Oscar in 2014 for Dallas Buyers Club and starring in True Detective that same year. He's currently promoting his latest, Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower (in theaters Friday), with Idris Elba, himself a TV veteran of BBC America's Luther.

The British heartthrob believes that some of the most innovative storytelling of the last few years has been in television.

"Both of us, from True Detective to Luther, have really done some exemplary work in those spaces," Elba says. "Dark Tower feels like that to me. I saw the movie and I was like, 'Wow, I don't know what to compare that to.' If I did, I'd compare it to the era of the '90s. Back then, we found a lot of new franchises that came out of nowhere. There was a rich imagination in filmmaking. In the 2000s, we're remaking stuff. That's why I think Dark Tower is interesting. You either love it or you hate it, but it's original."