Coltrane is a new five-episode VR series produced by New Canvas, Jacaranda Productions, and Pico, continuing the detective noir story begun with 2016's VR Noir.

The creatives behind 2016's VR experience VR Noir: A Day Before the Night have announced a continuation of that detective noir story is coming later this year.

Set in Hong Kong, Coltrane follows the disgraced former SFPD detective turned private investigator, Veronica Coltrane, as a surveillance assignment leads her into a dark conspiracy. The show spans five 15-minute episodes that combine live-action performances with real-time immersive environments, allowing viewers to experience the story in an immersive way as it unfolds around them.

VR Noir: A Day Before the Night was originally released in 2016, and stood as an early attempt to combine cinematic storytelling, interactivity, and viewer agency in virtual reality. The title eventually surpassed 500,000 downloads on Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard.

New Canvas co-founder Nathan Anderson, who was involved with the original VR Noir, returns as Coltrane's showrunner. Anderson says the new series represents an opportunity to take the ideas explored in VR Noir considerably further.

"When we released VR Noir in 2016," he says, "I described my career quest as finding the convergence of storytelling, game design, and interactivity. Ten years later, that's still the quest."

Immersive video has an interesting niche within the VR ecosystem. Recent releases like Starclash and Finding Frida have stretched our expectations and broadened the scope of just what a VR experience can be.

Coltrane will be coming to unspecified VR platforms sometime soon.