Homeland season 8: Everything you need to know
Note: contains major spoilers for Homeland.
The fate of Homeland was proving to be as difficult to predict as the show's own twisty-turny plots. Showtime gave an eighth season the thumbs up, but whenever the people behind it were quizzed about its future, no one could offer up a concrete answer.
But we finally have clarity.
Showtime confirmed that the drama will end with this chapter, making season eight Carrie Mathison's final outing.
"Alex Gansa will be bringing his show to its proper conclusion," said the network's president David Nevins at TCA 2018
Here's everything you need to know.
Homeland season 8 plot: what can we expect?
"Having read the first few scripts, I can tell you, it's a breathless, surprising and moving ride to its conclusion," entertainment president Gary Levine told press (via TV Line).
Homeland's seventh season finale, 'Paean to the People', saw Carrie captured by Russian national Yevgeny Gromov. When she's released as part of a prisoner exchange seven months later at Russia's border with Estonia, Carrie is barely lucid – having had her medication withheld – and seems to not even recognise her mentor Saul.
Elizabeth Keane (Elizabeth Marvel) also opted to resign the presidency, deciding that the tumultuous events of her administration had left the American people unable to trust her.
According to showrunner Alex Gansa, Homeland's seventh and eighth seasons were originally planned to be very closely tied together – telling essentially one story. "Barring unforeseen world events, we do really hope to go abroad for the last two seasons and to end the story there," he said in early 2017.
While the seventh season remained on home turf, the plan is still to head abroad for season eight, with a significant time jump between the two seasons.
"We get to play this last season in DC with the intention of taking us overseas for one last chapter," Gansa said. "Season eight will be overseas somewhere.
"We get to play a story with larger national stakes in season seven and we'll go back to a smaller intelligence-based season in eight. We get to pull out all the stops this year and then get to the emotional heart of things in season eight."
Gansa had previously hinted at a circular narrative, with season eight going back to where it all began. "This show began in Israel [as Prisoners of War/Hatufim], and there's something poetic about going back to that part of the world in the show," he said.
"So we've been thinking, just in a thematic way, that it might be nice to end the show set in Israel."
And this, folks, is the official synopsis, revealed by TVLine: "The series' final season finds Carrie Mathison (Danes) recovering from months of brutal confinement in a Russian gulag. Her body is healing, but her memory remains fractured – and that is a problem for Saul, now National Security Advisor to the newly ascendant President Warner (Beau Bridges).
"The top priority of Warner's nascent administration is ending the "forever war" in Afghanistan, and Saul has been dispatched to engage the Taliban in peace negotiations. But Kabul teems with warlords and mercenaries, zealots and spies – and Saul needs the relationships and expertise that only his protégé, Carrie, can provide.
"Against medical advice, Saul asks Carrie to walk with him into the lion’s den… one last time."
Whatever happens, expect the unexpected.
Homeland director Lesli Linka Glatter told Indiewire last year that the show will continue to surprise, even in its final season:
"One of the things that’s been so amazing about being on the show is that we reinvent the show every year," she said.
"And what’s great about that is it stays new and fresh and it keeps us all on our toes, and what’s bad about that is it never gets any easier. We’re always going to a new city, hiring a new crew — kind of reinventing the wheel."
Homeland season 8: Is it the final season?
As early as 2016, before the seventh season had even aired, Gansa was insisting that Homeland would be "done" after season eight.
"It's definitely going to be my last year," he insisted. "I can't speak for Claire [Danes] or Mandy [Patinkin], but it will be my final year and it will be designed to be the end of an eight-season story.
"If Showtime, Fox, Claire and Mandy want to take the show further that's their decision, and we would leave some room for that to happen – if there's an appetite."
He later explained that seeds for the show's ultimate ending had already been sown in previous seasons, with Danes apparently confirming that she too would be done with the series after eight years.
"Yeah, that's it," she said, adding that she felt "conflicted" about finally leaving Carrie behind.
But then, in June 2018, Danes backtracked on her earlier comments, saying only that Homeland's future is "totally uncertain".
"It's not unequivocally conclusive," she said. "We'll see. As I said, it's the kind of show that could continue going on indefinitely because it's a strange model. It's an unusual model. It can mutate in ways a lot of shows can't. "
But now it really is official. We're on the home stretch, people. Prepare yourselves.
Homeland season 8 trailer: When will we see it?
Homeland tends to keep its cards close to its chest, so don't expect to see anything until around a month before season eight lands.
Speaking of air dates, when should we expect to see season eight? Glad you asked!
Homeland season 8 release date: When will it be on?
The first five seasons all launched in September-October, with the last two premiering early in the year.
But despite wanting a summer launch, Showtime have had to rejig their schedule numerous times.
"We previously announced a June premiere but because of [international] production demands… we're moving the final season premiere back to the fall," said Levine.
Because of this, fans expected Homeland to return around October 2019 at the latest, but then more bad news arrived when further delays struck. Unfortunately, the network's autumn schedule was already full, so season eight will now air on Showtime in the US on February 9, 2020.
Homeland traditionally airs a week later in the UK following each week's US premiere, so expect to see season eight arrive around Sunday, February 16, 2020 on Channel 4.
Via Deadline, Levine explained why the final season of Homeland is taking so long to reach our screens during a TCA press tour:
"Homeland is an ambitious series – especially in its final season."
"[Showrunner] Alex [Gansa] wants to go out proudly, and that has involved production in multiple countries at times and in places that have some issues. It just takes time," he told reporters.
"There have been no missteps. It's been a relatively smooth process. But it's a very ambitious production schedule and it has taken more time than we [anticipated]."
Homeland season eight cast: Who will be in it?
Dead certs for the new episodes are Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison and Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson, the heart and soul of Homeland.
Other possibilities include F Murray Abraham as Dar Adal (behind bars, but still very much alive), Elizabeth Marvel as Elizabeth Keane, Maury Sterling as Max Piotrowski, Linus Roache as David Wellington (White House Chief of Staff), and Jake Weber as right-wing media personality Brett O'Keefe.
TVLine revealed that Claire Danes' actual husband, Hugh Dancy, is joining the show as John Zabel, "a savvy Washington consultant who joins the White House as a new foreign policy advisor to the President – and a formidable opponent to Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin)".
And according to The Hollywood Reporter, True Blood's Sam Trammell will play vice president Benjamin Hayes, described as "more dangerous than anticipated".
He's a political survivor who will act as President Walter's (Beau Bridges) right hand man.
We'll be keeping a spy's eye on all the latest news and reveals, updating this page whenever we get fresh gossip – so bookmark this page for all you need to know about Homeland season eight.
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