The Diplomat Season 5: Everything We Know So Far

Vice President Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell) stands, but sits back down when Grace tells him to. White House chief of staff Billie Appiah (Nana Mensah) and Secretary of State Miguel Ganon (Miguel Sandoval) resign and follow Kate out, and Hal then joins them outside. Without speaking to him, Kate tells the press that the vice president has something to say, and the season ends before we hear a word of it. Whether we ever do depends on a renewal.

Other threads stay open. Grace has recalled Stuart Hayford (Ato Essandoh), Kate's deputy chief of mission, to Washington over his dissent cable against the warship plan, while his partner, Eidra Park (Ali Ahn), stays in London. Todd Penn (Bradley Whitford), Grace's husband, is now the US special envoy to the UK. Bethan Vaughn (Jodie Whittaker), the new British prime minister, has let Russia send vessels into British waters to recover its dead.

Who could return for The Diplomat Season 5?

Officially, no Season 5 cast has been announced, because Season 5 itself has not been. On the story alone, every character above is still in play. The resignations at the G7 happen inside the story, and we found no report of any of those actors leaving the show. Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford and Nana Mensah were all promoted to series regulars for Season 4.

Two characters who had been there since Season 1 leave the story in Season 4. Austin Dennison (David Gyasi), the British foreign secretary, is killed off-screen in a helicopter crash. Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear) resigns as prime minister midway through the season, in what Netflix calls his final episode.

"I've already felt pretty lucky to have stayed on for as long as I have," Kinnear told The Telegraph. Asked by TV Guide why the show brought in a new prime minister, Cahn pointed to how the job works: "Most diplomats change posts every three years." She made a similar point to The Telegraph: "You either outlast the people that you're working with, or you're sent to a different country."

What Debora Cahn and the cast have said

Cahn has given little away. "You're asking all the right questions," she told TVLine when asked whether Kate and Hal will be united against the White House, adding that she would appreciate any answers in writing. On Hal's statement to the press, she told TV Guide: "Stay tuned, my friend." Declining to give TV Guide a number of seasons, she said she is open to something better coming up but has "always known how the series would end", and that has not changed.

The cast do not claim to know what comes next. Allison Janney told The Hollywood Reporter: "What the hell is going to happen if we get to another season?" "I don't think you get to walk out and then walk back in again," Rufus Sewell told the same outlet, speaking about Hal. "I wouldn't want to alter any of her ideas," Keri Russell told TheWrap of Cahn's plans for future seasons.

This page will be updated when Netflix announces whether The Diplomat is coming back for Season 5.