‘Homeland’ EP Talks ‘The Killing’ Effect, Teases Major Brody Revelation

If there’s one thing that haunts all new TV thrillers with a central mystery at the core of its drama, it’s the effect The Killing had on an audience’s trust. The AMC show and its creator, Veena Sud, angered many of its fans when it didn’t answer its own question: Who killed Rosie Larsen? Homeland co-creator and EP Alex Gansa addressed the controversy in relation to the new Showtime series.

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“I don’t want to cast stones at The Killing, because I thought The Killing was unbelievable, and incredibly evocative,” Gansa tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And I know how hard it is to do these things. You have to understand that The Killing also was at kind of a disadvantage in so far as a murder had already been committed.”

“And so the detectives were out trying to solve that murder,” he continues. “But there wasn’t really the sense that something else was a threat, that something else was about to happen. They were trying to piece together what happened in the past. And that’s very different from the situation that we have.”

In contrast, Gansa explains that Homeland contains an active terrorist threat to the U.S. that Carrie (Claire Danes), Saul (Mandy Patinkin), and David Estes (David Harewood) can stop.

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“So whether or not Brody is guilty,” Gansa says. “Whether or not he’s been turned in captivity, whether or not, hypothetically, he’ll go through with the terrorist act, there is a real and bona fide plot against America.”

“So, clearly The Killing is a cautionary tale at some level to us,” He goes on to say. “But it didn’t influence our storytelling.”

Gansa says that he and co-creator Howard Gordon had the first season fairly mapped out even before Showtime gave it a full season order. And while the season pivots on the guilt or innocence of Sgt. Brody (Damian Lewis), the threat to America could come from several other sources, as well.

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But, of course, that may not satisfy viewers who really want to know if Brody has really been turned against America while being held captive by Al-Qaeda. And Gansa tells THR we will definitely know the answer to that mystery by the end of the season and possibly much sooner.

“There is a major, major revelation in the next episode,” he says. “In the episode that airs this Sunday, you will understand whether Brody is innocent or guilty.”

Homeland airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on Showtime.

Email: Jethro.Nededog@thr.com; Twitter: @TheRealJethro