Homeland Casts True Blood Favorite As Vice President In Final Season

Homeland Carrie Mathison Claire Danes Showtime
(Image credit: Showtime)

Homeland Season 8 is furthering its progress. The Showtime drama has cast a fan favorite from True Blood to take on a pivotal role. They will be playing the freshly-minted vice president. Who is "they?" Sam Trammell is heading to Homeland.

Yes! Sam Trammell will star in the upcoming and final season of Homeland. The actor has signed on to play Vice President Benjamin Hayes, per a THR exclusive. It is not a short-term role either. Trammell will recur on the series for a season-long arc. Based on what is said about his character, that makes sense.

Sam Trammell will play the vice president to Beau Bridges' president. Bridges' character gets more than he bargained for with his pick for VP. In the pithy description, Trammell’s Benjamin is said to be a "political survivor." So he has seen his share of political dramas and come through them on the other side.

Based on his position, it would be fair to say he not only survived that tumult, he thrived in the face of it. Benjamin possesses a keen skill for "optics." His vice presidency will require a leap from him, as he has had to cross the aisle to serve as vice president. Someone really wanted the job.

True Blood Sam Trammell Sam Merlotte HBO

(Image credit: HBO)

"Keep your friends close..." because Beau Bridges has underestimated his vice president. He believes he has made a safe choice with Sam Trammell’s character. He chose Hayes to help heal the rift between party lines. Well, Trammell’s Benjamin turns out to be for more of a threat than he thought.

Does this mean Benjamin Hayes will become more popular than Beau Bridges' president? Maybe. Will he scheme to become president? Again, maybe. Sam Trammell is perfect for this role, as it sounds like a complicated one. This kind of character requires charisma, and Trammell has that in spades. It will also be a fun genre departure for the actor.

He can currently be seen in the newly released Netflix series The Order. Like True Blood, it deals in the supernatural. Heading to Homeland will be a chance to handle something new. Unless Homeland has saved its biggest shocker for last and everyone is a supernatural entity.

It will be interesting to learn how Sam Trammell’s character intersects with the overall storyline for Season 8. Homeland’s final installment was said to take place outside of Washington D.C. Instead, the show is believed to have its setting in Afghanistan, per Deadline.

Homeland is filming in Morocco and the season’s release has been pushed from its earlier summer debut to sometime in late 2019. Thus, it will probably be a while before viewers get to find out how Sam Trammell’s character fits into the action.

Homeland’s eighth and final season will premiere at some point in 2019 on Showtime. In the meantime, there are a lot of new shows set to arrive on the cable network and others during the midseason.

Britt Lawrence

Like a contented Hallmark movie character, Britt happily lives in the same city she grew up in. Along with movies and television, she is passionate about competitive figure skating. She has been writing about entertainment for 5 years, and as you may suspect, still finds it as entertaining to do as when she began.