Comic-Con: ‘Homeland’ Heading Back To Middle East For Season Two
The conspiracy thriller series Homeland will kick off its second season in the Middle East, executive producer Howard Gordon revealed today at Comic-Con. “The first two episodes were shot in Israel,” said Gordon, a Comic-Con veteran. Gordon came out before Showtime’s Dexter panel this evening to show a short and freshly cut trailer for Homeland’s upcoming season, which starts on September 30. The trailer showed Claire Danes’ Carrie Mathison character in a teaching position and no longer an 
active CIA agent after her bipolar breakdown at the end of last season. The trailer also showed, among character talk of an Israeli attack on Iran and a street machine gun firefight, former captive Marine and closet Muslim Nicholas Brody now elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, The Brody character, played by Damian Lewis, is now also one of the closest advisors to the Vice-President he almost killed in an terrorist attack in season one. Gordon said that it was different shooting in Israel, where the series Homeland is based on first broadcast, as opposed to the United States. “It got challenging in certain places, people weren’t happy we were there,” said the producer. Gordon also joked that all the acclaim Homeland has received felt good. “It didn’t suck to find out the President of the United States and the leader of the free world is a fan”, he added. President Obama has repeatedly commented on how much he enjoys watching Homeland.
Related: EMMYS: ‘Homeland’s Damian Lewis
So is this a straight remake of the Israeli series too?
The shows are fairly similar, Graham. I just finished watching the Israeli show here in the UK and it is absolutely fantastic. Better in my mond than the American adaptation, but both are good. The Israeli one is deeper and superbly acted.
Graham – No, as an Israeli who knows both shows I can tell you they are different shows. The premise is different, the story is far from being the same and the characters are different.
Graham, all the events in the (slow and boring) Israeli series were coverd in episode 1+2 and a bit of 3 in Homeland, they took a really medicore show – who while popular in Israel was critically panned – and turned it into a great show and made it their own.