“Homeland” will be back to home base for season 6.
The upcoming season of the hit Showtime series, which will be set in New York after spending the last season in Berlin, will tackle the U.S. presidential election.
“The entire season will take place between election day and inauguration day. It’s an interesting time; a transition and transfer of power is happening,” showrunner Alex Gansa said while kicking off the show’s Emmy campaign on Wednesday at a For Your Consideration panel.
“In that 72 days, we’re hopefully going to tell an interesting story,” he continued. “Whether the president is male or female, it’s going to be a very interesting character.”
After tiptoeing around the issue for months, Gansa also confirmed that Rupert Friend‘s character, Quinn, will return following last season’s cliffhanger that left his fate up in the air.
“Rupert will be back, but not the same,” he said. “How we’re dramatizing Peter Quinn is still undecided at this moment.”
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Friend speculated that tough-as-nails Peter might change into someone with a softer side, a character he said he would be very excited to play.
Claire Danes, Miranda Otto and “Homeland” executive producer/director Lesli Linka Glatter were also at the panel and discussed how real life imitated the show. The Showtime series was filming in Berlin when the Paris and Brussels attacks occurred.
Some adjustments were made to the storyline in order to reflect the November 2015 Paris attacks. Glatter, who directed many of the episodes, said they altered the dialogue in a scene with Saul (played by Mandy Patinkin) at the end of the season and that Allison, Otto’s character, mentions the Paris tragedy.
Gansa also expressed reservations about writing another storyline about a terrorist attack.
“We’re back in the city where 9/11 happened,” he said. “The easy thing to do would be another big terrorist attack in New York, but I think that’s bad karma. We’re going to tell a different story.”
Gansa said the situation in Europe was surreal while they were filming.
“Everyone who worked on the show did some soul-searching. We wondered what message we should put out into the world, something we still struggle with, especially bringing ‘Homeland’ back to the States for next season.”
“As a person making entertainment, do we want to create something that doesn’t exists?” he added, referring to the possibility of writing a storyline about ISIS or Al-Qaeda cells in the U.S.
Danes said she initially worried that playing a character like Carrie Mathison would “feel exploitational.”
Friend, on the other hand, said he didn’t “consider the ramifications of this part.”
“Whether I agree with it socially or politically, that’s not on my radar,” he said. “My job is to play this part. It’s not something I concern myself with.”
“Homeland” returns for season 6 this fall.
