‘Homeland’ season 3 spoilers: The first new addition to the staff is…

As you may have read from some of our recent posts, “Homeland” took a major blow earlier this week when Meredith Stiehm, its sole female writer who was responsible for many of the best emotional moments between Carrie and Brody (see “The Weekend”), scored a 13-episode order at FX for her new series “The Bridge.” It’s a brilliant career move for her no doubt, but with a writers’ room as talented as this one is, you need to keep a level of consistency to be successful.

Luckily, one of the great things about this show is that when you are the reigning Emmy winner for Outstanding Drama Series, there are a ton of people who want to work with you. According to The Hollywood Reporter, James Yoshimura (whose writing and producing credits including “Treme” and “Homicide: Life on the Street”) is moving to Los Angeles from Chicago in order to join the writing staff for the first season. He is the first confirmed hire by the Showtime series, and more could come depending on the way in which the rest of pilot season goes.

“Homeland” season 3 is currently in the planning stages, and filming should begin in mid-to-late May in North Carolina (in addition to any other locations dictated by the writing). At the moment, the only confirmed actors to be returning are Damian Lewis (Brody), Claire Danes (Carrie), Mandy Patankin (Saul), and Rupert Friend (Quinn). We will probably see some familiar agents again, and Morena Baccarin has a multi-year contract to return, if she is needed. (We would be stunned if she is not back in some capacity.)

If you want to find out some more news about “The Bridge,” which does seem to be a rather promising series in its own right, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: Showtime