At any rate, the two actors have turned the real-life speculation into a fictional series for Apple TV, aptly titled ‘Brothers.’
ByTrace William Cowen
September 22, 2026
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Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, despite having gone the meta route by turning the real-life possibility of them being brothers into a new comedy series for Apple TV, don’t quite see eye to eye when it comes to settling things once and for all with a DNA test.
Amid promo for Brothers, launching with a two-episode premiere on Wednesday (Sept. 23), the True Detective alumni have broached the topic numerous times. Harrelson, it should be said, has been described as a “full believer” in the possibility that he and McConaughey are, in fact, brothers. But McConaughey would prefer to entertain the idea from a distance.
Before we go any deeper here, a quick catch-up for the “Wait, Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are brothers?” crowd: McConaughey’s mother, Mary, famously let it slip some time ago that she “knew” Harrelson’s father, Charles, with McConaughey emphasizing what was interpreted at the time as an intended innuendo. Other details of the timing of this claimed connection have also been made public, all of which, for Harrelson, are clearly enough to suggest the as-yet-unproven brotherdom.
“He doesn’t wanna do it,” Harrelson recently told Jimmy Kimmel when asked about his co-star’s thoughts on submitting to a DNA test. “I understand, because he loses a father. [But] he doesn’t really lose a father. He gains a father he never met, and you know, he had a nice guy in the house all that time. And decent, you know what I mean? You know, friend. Just call him ‘Friend.’ Then, he gains a brother, and then my two brothers. It’s a net gain all the way around.”
In a separate interview for Glass Half Full, McConaughey said he’s “calling BS” on the whole thing.
“It’s not true,” he asserted, conceding that he would “consider” taking a DNA test despite it being “not really necessary” in his view.
“My mom’s a long-joke lady,” McConaughey added when pointing to why, exactly, he believes his mother was merely goading Harrelson, a point he also made in yet another interview, this time with E! News.
Still, McConaughey has gone as far as to say he’ll “probably end up doing it,” referring to the DNA test.
All of that is well and good, and more power to both of them, but what we really need is a McConaughey and Harrelson reunion under the True Detectiveumbrella, brothers or not.
