Homeland season 6 to take on presidential election

After spending the last few seasons around the world in places like Berlin and Islamabad, Homeland is coming home for season 6 in the fall… just in time for the presidential election.

Details on the new season of the Showtime hit have been scarce as the only previous hints have been about it being set in New York, but EW caught up with showrunner Alex Gansa at Homeland’s FYC Emmy panel on Wednesday for some updates.

“The whole season takes place between Election Day in November and the inauguration of a new president in January, during this strange and interregnum where a very fragile transfer of power takes place between the outgoing president and the incoming president-elect,” he said.

Season 5 was set and filmed in Berlin while many current events, including ISIS, Edward Snowden, and the terrorist attacks in Paris, played some role on the show. With Homeland being a political show that will air around the same time as the real life presidential election, it’s easy to think that they will once again pull from the headlines, but Gansa says they will stop short of predicting any winners. The drama playing out on screen will focus more on the aftermath than the election itself.

“There is this strange period in America where there are 72 days when it’s not exactly clear who’s in charge, and there is a new president that needs to be educated on what it means to be president,” Gansa told EW. “That is a very complex transfer of power filled with all kinds of anxiety and different competing interests — How do I get the ear of the new president? How does the new president elect deal with the president that’s going out? — and it’s a dangerous time in our democracy.”

Homeland is set to return to Showtime for season 6 this fall.