In case Veep fans are worried that their favorite female-led political comedy is going to be getting a replacement protagonist, they have no reason to fear. The show, unlike the parallel world America it’s events take place in, will not be getting a new lead.
At least, that’s what the show’s executive producer David Mandel revealed to Deadline today.
In case of spoilers, it’s best not to continue reading if you haven’t watched the season five finale of Veep last night. The presidential election that’s taken up the plot of this entire season, which ended up being between the incumbent Selina Meyer (Julie Louis-Dreyfus) and opponent Tom James (Hugh Laurie), took a convoluted political twist. As a sabotage tactic by Charlie Baird and Senator Doyle, two characters President Meyer had spurned politically before, Laura Montez (Andrea Savage), who was actually supposed to be on the opponent’s ticket as vice president, was sworn in as President when the President on her ticket dropped out.
And as the Ohio-born woman throwing out Spanish as if her marriage into the Latinx community actually made her Latina gave her inaugural speech to the nation while Selina pouted in the background, you have to wonder–if Selina’s really not going to be the veep or the president, then where does the show go from here?
According to Mandel, Veep is simply going to go with the flow.
“Well, that’s what she’s looking to do right now, is get out of the rain,” says Mandel, and he continued to say, “However, one of the things I am really excited about is much in the way Veep became the story of the president of the United States when she became president, we are now going to get a chance to sort of check out what it’s like for her to be the former president of the United States – and not perhaps a well regarded former president of the United States.”
After all, as Mandel points out, Selina was never actually voted in by the public–much like Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood on House of Cards, she was only the incumbent because the sitting POTUS resigned–but she’s still going to bare the former presidency, walk around flanked by around-the-clock Secret Service, etc.
Of course, maybe she’ll just fade from everyone’s memory as the new President gets to work (Montez already managed to free Tibet as a nation, after all. Somehow). But then again, it wouldn’t be Veep if everything moved along normally.
“[The reaction to her being voted out of office] is going to be very hard…for someone like Selina Meyer to hear,” says Mandel, “and so that’s what gets me very excited, is sort of the new world, the uncharted territory going into next season.”
According to the EP, the writers have already gotten back to work. No one is sure which of the other characters will be coming back yet, but apparently, if it’s funny enough, it’ll stay.
As for those excited by the last scene of the finale–Bob Bradley (Martin Mull) walking into the Oval Office and saying, “Selina, we found those lost Nevada votes. You won.”–that was only a joke. It seems as though the star of Veep is neither president nor veep no more.