Homeland has perhaps dropped out of the zeitgeist in these parts since its first two seasons had the nation's watercoolers abuzz with talk of Carrie and Brody's exploits. But the spy series has become an doughty old staple on Showtime and the network will be hoping to inject fresh life into its fifth season with a change of locale and some new faces. Among them are Australian actress and **Lord Of The Rings **alumnus Miranda Otto.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Otto is joining the Berlin-set season as the CIA’s station head in the city. Her character will report in to Mandy Patinkin’s Saul Berenson. Also aboard are German actors Sebastian Koch (playwright Georg Dreyman in The Lives Of Others) and Alexander Fehling (Inglourious Basterds), as well as The Good Wife’s Sarah Sokolovic. Koch plays a Grman philanthropist and Carrie Mathison's (Claire Danes) new boss, while Fehling is her new boyfriend. Sokolovic is an American journalist.
Season five picks up two and a half years after we last saw Carrie. She's now working for a private security firm in Germany alongside Fehling's character. Presumably her troubled past will return to haunt her fairly swiftly, and he'll turn out to be a KGB mole with a stash of polonium in his pants.
Runs the official synopsis: “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.”
Cameras start rolling shortly in Berlin on the 12-part season, with Rupert Friend and F. Murray Abraham also returning. Otto, meanwhile, will be appearing next in HBO’s small-screen take on Michael Crichton’s Westworld.