'Homeland' season 6 spoilers, news, updates: Carrie's daughter grows up; Series endorsing presidential candidate?
"Homeland" season 6 is currently in production with cast changes and additions being made to prepare the show for its January premiere.
According to reports, Carrie Mathison's (Claire Danes) daughter, Frances "Frannie" Mathison, will have major exposure in the upcoming installment. Frannie is Carrie's daughter by her deceased lover Nick Brody (Damian Lewis). It will be recalled that Nick was publicly executed in season 3. However, according to Daily Mail, a new actress has been tapped to play Frannie, since season 6 needs a slightly older version of the child.
Back in seasons 4 and 5, Frannie was portrayed by Germany-based twins Luna and Lotta Pfitzer. For the upcoming season, a US-based child actress has been chosen not only because she's older but also for purposes of production convenience.
In previous seasons of "Homeland," Frannie was mostly under the care of Carrie's sister, Maggie (Amy Hargreaves). Carrie had to do so because she was struggling to raise the child following Nick's death. She thought Frannie will be better off without her, so she relegated her care to Maggie whole she served overseas. It was only in season 5 when she decided to leave the CIA and move to Germany with her daughter.
This time around, Carrie and her daughter will start a new life in New York during the time when the country's first-ever female president, Elizabeth Keane (Elizabeth Marvel) is struggling with the transition in power. Incidentally, there some reports say the plot of "Homeland" season 6 seems to be endorsing a particular candidate in the upcoming presidential elections.
The showrunners of the series have denied the claims and said that even before the election period began, they have already brainstormed and finalized the plot of season 6.
Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Deadline, executive producer Alex Gansa said that "Homeland" will only run through season 8. It will be recalled that near the beginning of summer, Showtime renewed the political drama for three more seasons. In line with this, Gansa says he and his co-showrunners are already plotting season 8 as the closing chapter of the Emmy award-winning series.
Gansa also says he is planning to film one of the final two seasons of the series in Israel, seeing as how the original concept for the show originated from the Israeli drama "Prisoners of War."
"Homeland" season 6 is set to premiere on Jan. 15, 2017, on Showtime.