The Diplomat season 3 is staging a huge The West Wing reunion that can only make this show even better!
The series has become one of Netflix’s biggest hits. The show focuses on Kate Wyler (Kerri Russell), the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. She arrives on the job just as a British ship attacked overseas threatens war with Russia.
Season 2 was highlighted by the casting of Emmy and Oscar winner Allison Janney as Grace Penn, the vice president, and now President, of the United States. Now, another TheWest Wing alum is coming on board, and it’s going to be a big one!
Per Deadline, Bradley Whitford joins The Diplomat season 3 as Penn’s husband, aka the First Gentleman. Whitford previously played Josh Lyman on The West Wing. His character is the White House deputy chief of staff turned Chief of Staff. And Janney herself took on the role of C.J. Cregg, White Houe press secretary turned Chief of Staff.
This won’t be the first reunion between the pair. Janney did a guest-star turn as herself on Whitford’s 2006 drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Whitford then guest-starred on a couple of episodes of Janney’s CBS sitcom Mom. Since The West Wing ended, Whitford has continued an excellent TV career, best known at the moment for The Handmaid’s Tale. Pairing them together is intriguing, especially given how The Diplomat season 2 ended.
The Diplomat season 2 reached the climax of the story with Kate confronting Penn on how Kate was being groomed to replace Penn as vice president. Kate also discovered that it was Penn who conceived a “false flag” attack on a British ship to prevent Scotland from leaving the U.K. and America losing a key navy base. But the plot went wrong to cause mass casualties and push Britain and Russia toward war.
Kate’s husband Hal (Rufus Sewell) went behind her back to tell President Rayburn (Michael McKean) about what Penn did. To say this backfired would be an understatement, as the news pushed Rayburn to suffer a fatal heart attack as a pack of Secret Service agents raced toward Penn.
Hal had to break it to Kate that Penn was now President, meaning Kate had just made an enemy of the most powerful woman in the world. That was one huge cliffhanger and season 3 will build on it.
Why Whitford and Janney will make The Diplomat Season 3 even better
The idea of Janney playing Penn as President is already great. We’ve seen Penn truly thinking she’s doing the right thing by America with her moves and being the first woman President is going to push her on. It also means she and Kate are going to clash a lot more.
Whitford’s role will be interesting as it’s a question about what Penn’s husband is like. Is he someone who prefers a quiet life and is not comfortable being the First Gentleman? Or is he just as conniving as Penn, and perhaps even the power behind the throne?
It would be a brilliant touch if Penn and her husband end up being an odd mirror to Kate and Hal. While the latter is on the verge of divorce, with Kate not wanting a bigger spot and Hal does, Penn loves the power. It would be interesting if her husband hated now being married to the President. That’s a great potential dynamic to play with in The Diplomat season 3.
Anyone who watched West Wing knows Whitford and Janney have a wonderful chemistry together, especially when it comes to bantering. Twenty-five years later, the pair are even better actors and now cast as husband and wife should spark that dynamic more. It’s also just fun to see these two actors once again in a White House setting.
We still need more details, but Whitford’s casting is the first sign. The Diplomat season 3 will be the best one yet for this great drama.
The Diplomat is streaming on Netflix.