‘Homeland’ Season 5 Adds Miranda Otto and Three More Regulars

Showtime’s Homeland pivots into yet another soft reboot in Season 5, this time taking Carrie to Germany via time-jump, and out of the CIA altogether. She certainly won’t be alone however, as the network has cast four new major characters for the season, including a Lord of the Rings alum and a new love interest for Carrie.

With Carrie now out of the CIA (and with Season 5 shot entirely in Germany), Homeland has added to the ranks German actor Sebastian Koch as a philanthropist and Carrie’s new boss, while Miranda Otto will portray the current Berlin Chief of Station, working under Saul. Additionally, Inglourious Basterds star Alexander Fehling will play Carrie’s boyfriend and legal counsel for the Düring Foundation, for which Sarah Sokolovic’s American journalist character works.

Also worth noting is that Rupert Friend and F. Murray Abraham will also return for Season 5, despite the prior finale “Long Time Coming” taking Friend’s Peter Quinn out of communication range for an overseas operation. So reads the official synopsis for Homeland Season 5:

Season five will pick up two years after Carrie Mathison’s ill-fated tenure as Islamabad station chief. Struggling to reconcile her guilt and disillusionment with years of working on the front lines in the ‘war on terror,’ Carrie finds herself in a self-imposed exile in Berlin, estranged from the CIA and working for a private security firm.

We’ll no doubt learn more over the summer as Homeland Season 5 gears up for a fall premiere, but can Showtime’s counterterrorism saga renew its freshness so soon after the palate-cleansing Season 4? Is Dana Brody lurking in some German alley, preparing her best cry-face? Time will tell, friends. Time tells all.

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