It appears that you can cross another name off the list of potential stars for the second season of True Detective: two representatives for Christian Bale tell Defamer that the Batman star won't be appearing in the next edition of the hit HBO show.

Why even inquire about Bale in the first place? Well, yesterday a Gawker commenter said that he knew a source who stated that HBO was in advance talks with the actor about season two:

In a further email with the commenter, he reiterated that his source—who he described as working for an agency involved in the talks—believed Bale was close to being cast.

Right now the offer has gone out but there are no additional details to report other than Bale is the only one with an offer.

There is smoke elsewhere on the internet regarding Bale and True Detective, which isn't exactly a surprise given the nature of the series and the actor. Back in March, someone on the True Detective subreddit posted the following:

Have heard from someone who works on the production that HBO has been talking to Christian Bale.

This, of course, is about as flimsy as a rumor can get, but Bale's name has started to trickle up to the mainstream entertainment press. Yesterday, Deadline posted an article about the "intensification" of True Detective season two casting rumors, which contains a passage about Bale's name coming up in the "rumor mill."

the rumor mill in the past few weeks focused on Bale, Phoenix and Brolin as well as The Normal Heart star Taylor Kitsch for the other male lead and Chastain.

That story was then picked up by The Daily Beast, who threw Bale's name up at the top of its story.

But I talked to two of Bale's representatives yesterday, and both insisted that he will not be on the show. That said, the conversation became much murkier when I asked whether Bale or his representatives had any discussions with HBO.

"I know that it's not true," Bale's publicist Jennifer Allen told me over the phone. When I pressed further she told me that "the end result is he's not doing it." When I asked what she meant by "the end result"—of talks with HBO?—she backpedaled and said "the rumor that he's doing it is not true."

She then referred me to Bale's agent Patrick Whitesell, who in an email wrote "Not true. He isn't interested." I twice asked Whitesell to clarify if "not true" referred to Bale being offered the gig or merely that he had discussed the role with HBO, but Whitesell refused to respond.

Maybe Bale or his reps talked to HBO, or maybe they didn't—my sense given their elusiveness on the specific question of negotiation is that there is fire there—but either way, his people are adamant that we'll be watching three other stars whenever True Detective comes back on air.

If you know anything about Bale and HBO, or anything else about the casting for the next season of True Detective, leave a comment below or email me at jordan@gawker.com.