Homeland final season delayed as first plot details are revealed

Homeland is going out with a bang with its eighth and final season… but viewers will just have to be patient.

Even though the spy thriller from Showtime and Channel 4 has been off-screens since mid-2018, its return has been delayed all the way until Sunday, February 9, 2020 at 9pm ET in the US at least.

At the TCA press tour on Friday (August 2), Showtime president Gary Levine blamed the delay on the hugely “ambitious” storyline for the season, rather than any trouble on set (via TVLine).

“[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,” Levine explained.

“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].”

The first plot synopsis certainly seems to back up his explanation, as season eight will send Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) to Afghanistan to negotiate with the Taliban while not yet fully healed from her confinement in Russia.

Here’s the synopsis: “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.”

The final season will also feature Claire Danes’s real-life husband Hugh Dancy joining the show as shrewd Washington consultant John Zabe, as well as True Blood‘s Sam Trammell as Vice President Benjamin Hayes.

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