Can you imagine "Homeland" without Brody or with both Brody and Carrie on the lam? Season 2 almost ended very differently.
In the Season 2 finale of the Showtime series, Carrie (Claire Danes) helped Brody (Damian Lewis) cross the border. But in the first draft of the finale, Carrie fled with Brody instead of returning to the CIA.
During a TV Academy panel (via The Hollywood Reporter) producer Meredith Stiehm said that after careful consideration, it was decided that it was better for Carrie to stay. "It was more in character for Carrie to stay and carry out her mission with the Agency after helping Brody escape safely to an underground network," Stiehm said, according to THR.
During the panel, "Homeland" co-creator Howard Gordon added that the only reason Brody survived Season 2 was because Showtime execs thought it was a good idea.
“We had sketched out this plan in the early parts of Season 2, which called for Brody’s demise, which may have been premature, and they asked us to reconsider,” Gordon said, according to THR, adding that it was “the happy accident of having very good partners.”
It was also the intention for Brody to die in Season 1, but Showtime impeded then as well. Co-creator Alex Gansa previously told E!, "The reason why we decided not to kill Brody off in the [Season 1] finale is because that relationship hasn't run its course yet. That's what we always come back to -- whenever we can intersect those two characters, that's when we feel most alive as writers, that's when the series really soars."
Not that this news will come as much of a surprise to Lewis. At the Television Critics Association Summer 2013 press tour, he admitted to having a hunch that the writers wanted to kill him off.
"Brody has a stay of execution on this show. There were moments they could've killed Brody and for whatever reason, they've chosen not to, but I don't think they like me and I think they're dying to kill me," he said with a laugh. "I think they just can't wait to find some devastating way for me to meet my maker."
"Homeland" Season 3 premieres Sunday, Sept. 29 at 9 p.m. ET.
