The Diplomat Season 2: The West Wing‘s Allison Janney Elected Vice President

The West Wing‘s Allison Janney is returning to her political roots via The Diplomat. The Oscar and Emmy-winning actress is joining Season 2 of Netflix’s Keri Russell-led drama in the recurring role of Vice President Grace Penn.

The Diplomat‘s inaugural season ended with Russell’s titular emissary Kate Wyler and David Gyasi’s foreign secretary Austin Dennison in serious jeopardy after they simultaneously uncovered the conspiracy behind the British aircraft carrier attack. As TVLine exclusively reported over the summer, when Season 2 debuts later this year the crisis will quite literally still be unfolding.

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“It will pick up right away,” a Diplomat source confirmed to TVLine, before noting that the series “has a really compressed timeline — something like three weeks pass in Season 1 — so it makes sense that Season 2 would start moments later.”

Netflix renewed The Diplomat for Season 2 just 10 days after Season 1 dropped in mid-April. The decision was a no-brainer: Upon its release, the show immediately shot to No. 1 on the streamer’s consumer-facing Top 10 list, with 57.48M hours viewed in its first weekend.

“Fans around the world are loving every minute of The Diplomat’s gripping and propulsive drama, and embracing Keri’s powerful performance,” Netflix’s VP of Drama Series Jinny Howe said in a statement at the time. “After that jaw-dropping cliffhanger, we can’t wait for them to see what the amazing visionary team of [series creator] Debora Cahn, [and fellow EPs] Janice Williams, Alex Graves and Keri have in store for Season 2.”

TVLine’s sister pub Variety broke the news of Janney’s casting.

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