Homeland Final Season Pushed to 2020 — First Plot Details Revealed

Michael Ausiello

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Showtime is delaying Carrie Mathison’s final curtain call yet again.

The cabler on Friday announced that Homeland‘s return has been pushed to 2020, with the eighth and final season set to debut on Sunday, February 9 at 9/8c. Season 8 was initially slated to launch last June, but Showtime, citing “[international] production demands,” bumped it to Fall 2019. The new 2020 date means that Homeland will have been off the air for nearly two years. (Showtime prez Gary Levine explains the reason for the delay here.)

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Showtime also on Friday confirmed the first details about the Season 8 plot via the following (rather detailed) logline:

The final season of Homeland finds Carrie Mathison (Danes) recovering from months of brutal confinement in a Russian gulag. Her body is healing, but her memory remains fractured — which is a problem for Saul (Mandy Patinkin), now National Security Advisor to the newly ascendant President Warner (Emmy and Golden Globe winner Beau Bridges). The top priority of Warner’s young administration is an end to 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 can provide. Against medical advice, Saul asks Carrie to walk with him into the lion’s den — one last time.

As TVLine previously reported, Homeland‘s 12-episode farewell is shooting on location in Morocco, with the North African country subbing for Season 8’s fictional backdrop of Afghanistan. The setup harkens back to Homeland’s fourth season, which was similarly set in Afghanistan (where Carrie served as CIA station chief in Kabul) but shot in Cape Town, South Africa.

In addition to Danes and Patinkin, Season 8’s primary cast also includes Maury Sterling, Linus Roache and Costa Ronin, with Season 4 alums Nimrat Kaur and Numan Acar also returning as series regulars. Hannibal‘s Hugh Dancy (aka Claire Danes’ real-life husband) is also set to recur 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.

Last August, Showtime president David Nevins announced Homeland‘s imminent end, explaining that the decision was made mutually by EP Alex Gansa and Danes. “Alex and Claire both started talking about it towards the end of last season,” he said. “I asked, ‘Are you sure? Let’s think about it.’ But when they were resolved, it seemed like it was the right time. The two of them finally made the decision.”

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