‘Homeland’ Season 5 Premiere Will Time Jump Two-and-a-Half Year after Season 4 Finale

When Homeland season 5 premieres in September, it will be set two and a half years after the the events seen during the final episode of previous season and it will be taking place in Europe, with Claire Danes' Carrie Mathison no longer an intelligence officer according to executive producer and director Alex Gansa during last week's Paley Fest session at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. He also said the political thriller will be shooting the show in Europe, "probably in Germany."

Homeland last season was set in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with Carrie being assigned to a CIA station in the Greater Middle East. The final episode of Season 4 which aired December 21 returned the show's setting to Washington, D.C. Titled "Long Time Coming," it also showed Carrie badly disillusioned with her agency as well as with her friend and mentor Saul who she learned compromised his integrity in exchange for political expediency.

At the Paley Fest Q&A session, Gansa was asked whether the threat of ISIS and other extremist groups might play into next season's stories. He replied: "That's the challenge every year. Front and center (is) what's happening in Syria and Iraq. As Alex (Cary) and Chip said, we try to humanize our villains and our adversaries. And if you look at Abu Nazir, even look at Brody, or look at Haqqani this past season there was a real effort to make their concerns and their lives understandable. That is very hard to do with ISIS. People down there are difficult to humanize and to understand. How do we dramatize - do we give them a platform? I don't know. It's very difficult to do because what they are doing on the ground feels so medieval and so horrible that you give them a platform on television I'm a little wary of; to try to make what they are talking about understandable or relatable is very difficult. ....Maybe we don't understand them well enough... It may be that they are just too evil to dramatize on television."

Lead actress Claire Danes confirmed at the Paley Fest that she was committed to the show for the long-term. She said: "I have to come back. I am contractually obligated. [Besides,] it is a dream job and it is a dream company."