Homeland: Linus Roache on David Wellington’s conscience, sacrifice, and uncertain fate

One of the popular additions to Homeland is Linus Roache, who played the role of the White House Chief of Staff, David Wellington. Roache has experience in playing complicated, morally gray characters, but Wellington took it a step further. Introduced as a potential obstacle for the main characters in the sixth season, Wellington evolved into one of the Showtime series's more complex characters.

This is especially applicable for Homeland Season 7, when fans were undecided if the White House Chief of Staff was a trustworthy character or not. However, his character experiences a pivotal shift that season, from where he tries his damndest to help the Elizabeth Keane administration.

"CIA officer Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) is tops in her field despite being bipolar, which makes her volatile and unpredictable. With the help of her long-time mentor Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin), Carrie fearlessly risks everything, including her personal well-being and even sanity, at every turn. You won't be able to turn away from this gripping, emotional thriller in which nothing short of the fate of our nation is at stake."

Showtime's Homeland: Who is David Wellington?

As mentioned before, Wellington was introduced in season 7 as the White House Chief of Staff as a guest star. His character intrigued everyone in the beginning, but they grew cautious about him. But everyone was surprised as his character was brought back for not only season 7 but also the eighth and final one as one of the show's key protagonists.

Linus Roache was interviewed by the online fansite TVBrittanyF.com in March 2020 after the eighth episode of Homeland Season 8 aired. In that interview, Roache addressed things like how he joined the series, his thoughts on returning for season 8, and, more importantly, Roache's interesting theory about his character.

When asked about how he joined the series, Roache told Brittany Frederick that he was a fan of Homeland before joining the sixth season:

“At the time, it was the only show that I was watching in real time. I remember I was waiting for the Sunday night episode to come out and that was in season 6…and I got a call on Monday saying, do you want to start on Wednesday? I said, what? What are you talking about? I was very excited. And then I had to get on the phone with Alex Gansa, the showrunner and [co-]creator, and try and get a sense of where was this going to go. Because Homeland, they have some sense of direction, but they’re open to change all the way along the road. So you could sign up and only end up in two episodes. And so I had a good chat with Alex, and he basically told me what his intentions were. He couldn’t promise anything and I had to trust in the process. And I loved the show so much I thought, what the hell, I’m in. Next thing I knew, there I was on Wednesday in the Oval Office, talking to Claire [Danes], saying this is really weird, because I’m a big fan and now I’ve got to be a hard-nosed politician to you.”

The actor revealed that his character had exited the popular espionage thriller series for good at the end of Homeland season 7. If you remember, that was the season in which the audience felt conflicted about David the most. His character evolved from an obstacle to one of the unlikely good guys as he fought tooth and nail to help Elizabeth Keane’s administration.

Therefore, Roache revealed that he was surprised when Homeland showrunner Alex Gansa asked him to return for the final season:

“Season 7, I thought, was an incredible season. Everybody was very much writing to the political climate that we were in after Trump got elected, and so there was a strong political story going on,” he recalled. “And I left at the end of seven. I said goodbye and thought well, that’s it, because the story ran its course. Keane resigned and Wellington wouldn’t have a job. But then about four or five months later, Alex called up and said, how do you feel about coming back? We think there’s a place for Wellington. I said well, I trust you now, I’ll come back.”

In the final season, David is a part of the Benjamin Hayes (Sam Trammell) administration. Many were wondering why David did not resign right after Keane’s resignation. If Roache is to be believed, Wellington is a part of the new administration because he cares about keeping the system working:

“I think the truest answer is that he actually does care. I think he actually saw it as part of a responsibility to hand over to [President] Warner and make sure that there was a smooth transition. And I sort of gave my own backstory that Keane would have asked [Wellington] to do that. And then, before you know it, we are where we are now and it’s all happening really quickly. What we’re watching now is happening within a matter of days. So there’s no time to get rid of him.”

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