'Homeland' season 6 spoilers: Claire Danes, creator Alex Gansa fly to D.C. for 'intense' info gathering with CIA officials and intelligence officers

“Homeland” Season 6 is still in development. The show has built a reputation for having striking similarities with real-world events. In the new season, “Homeland” will return to the United States and the setting is said to involve the presidential elections.

Spoiler alert! This article contains “Homeland” spoilers. Read on if you would like to know what happens next before the new episode airs.

To maintain the sense of realism and closeness to actual issues in “Homeland,” the show producers reportedly headed to Washington D.C. to intensely gather information from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials and intelligence officers. They reportedly fly to the nation’s capital before the start of every season to get the most useful details and risks.

Showrunner and co-creator Alex Gansa tells Indiewire that they have John McGaffin, a fantastic consultant who previously worked as a deputy director of the clandestine division of the CIA. Gansa explained that McGaffin gathers a number of people whom they can discuss with. They fly to Washington, D.C., meet the former CIA agent’s contacts at a little old club in Georgetown and start drawing the information.

Gansa said that they have talked to several extraordinary people from the CIA, consisting of retired and active agents. They also talk to other people in government who work in the White House and various state departments. He said that it was interesting to get the full details straight from the sources themselves.

Director and executive producer Lesli Linka Glatter, however, was not able to attend the Washington D.C. trip for “Homeland” Season 6. Everyone else went, including show star Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin. Danes said that the meeting lasted three days, which she described as long, dense and fascinating. She allegedly left feeling both dizzy and spooked.

Glatter and Gansa noted how influential the annual meetings were on the upcoming seasons. Gansa said that they usually spend about two hours per contact, so they generally spend the whole day just gathering information.

All the elements that they presented in each season contributed to the success of “Homeland.” Viewers admired the parallelism that the show provided, but Gansa said that they also have to be critical on the given details and determine which parts would be good on the show and which ones should be taken out.

“Homeland” Season 6 returns in January 2017 on Showtime. It also airs on Channel Ten in Australia.