'Homeland' Season 6 Spoilers, Casting News & Update: Showtime Series Scouts Israeli Actors to Play Mossad Agents, Iranian Entrepreneur & Palestinian Police Officer
Fans can expect interesting new characters when "Homeland" Season 6 returns to Showtime early next year. The Emmy-winning political thriller television series recently scouted Israeli actors to portray some significant roles.
Important Characters
Israel Hayom reported that dozens of Israeli actors auditioned for at least seven significant roles in the sixth season of the critically acclaimed television series. These important characters include Mossad agents, a Palestinian police officer and an Iranian entrepreneur.
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Cast Israel, a nonprofit organization involved in promoting Israeli actors abroad, conducted the audition on behalf of "Homeland's" showrunners. The nonprofit revealed that most of the chosen Israeli actors will play agents of Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel.
Cast Israel disclosed that two Israeli actresses will be cast as Mossad agents assigned in Arab countries. They will hide their true identity by working as call girls. Moreover, another Israeli actor will play a Mossad technician.
The nonprofit also shared that the producers of "Homeland" tapped Israeli actors to play other nationalities. Some Israelis are set to portray a Palestinian police officer, a successful Iranian entrepreneur and an Emirati cab driver in the sixth season of the hit television series.
Israeli Roots
The Israeli actors who auditioned for the roles signed nondisclosure agreements to keep the details of the upcoming characters a secret. The production of the Israelis' scenes will take place next month in Morocco.
It is not the first time that the Golden Globe-winning serial drama hired Israeli actors to be a part of the cast. But according to Cast Israel, this is the first time that Israelis will take high-profile roles in the series.
Per Deadline, the pilot season of "Homeland" was based on the Israeli series "Prisoners of War." It followed the story of a CIA agent named Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) who hunts down terrorists. The second season of the television series was partly filmed in Israel, with Israeli actors taking bit parts.
Highly Anticipated Comeback
The fifth season of Showtime's flagship drama series aired from Oct. 4 to Dec. 20, 2015. According to Release Date, the premiere of the fifth installment engaged 1.663 million viewers while the season finale drew more than two million viewers.
Showtime announced last month that the sixth season of the award-winning television drama will premiere on Jan. 15, 2017 at 9:00 p.m. The network also renewed the show for its seventh and eighth season.
"Homeland" executive producer Alex Gansa told Variety that Season 8 will likely be the show's final outing. He said that eight seasons are enough to tell the story and keep the quality up.
