Martin Sheen revealed that a sequel to Aaron Sorkin’s critically acclaimed political drama The West Wing will never happen. The West Wing aired for seven seasons and centered on a fictional United States president and the staff who work at the White House. A special reunion was released in 2020 to encourage voter participation in that year’s presidential election.
During an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with host Josh Horowitz, Sheen opened up about whether the iconic NBC show has a future beyond the series finale that aired in 2006. According to the actor who played President Jed Bartlet, a sequel to The West Wing will never materialize.
Sheen compared Sorkin to singer Bob Dylan, saying, “He never looks back. He’s always going forward.” He added that The West Wing was abrilliant foundation” for Sorkin to go off and launch other projects.
Sheen then admitted that even if Sorkin had thought about creating a The West Wing sequel, he never talked about it with any of the cast members.
Sorkin is like Dylan, he never looks back. He’s always going forward. His work in the past is his brilliant foundation that allows him to launch and go into new and more personal places. But no. If he had thought about it, he never shared it with me or any of the guys that I know of. No because you can see reruns of it. They’re relevant today.
Even though he claimed that Sorkin has never thought about a revival or reboot of The West Wingthe creator himself has publicly addressed this exact topic. In fall 2024, while celebrating the 25th anniversary of the series, Sorkin expressed a willingness to revisit The West Wing if a great idea came to him.
Several years earlier, Sorkin publicly revealed that the premise of a potential The West Wing sequel would revolve around Bartlet as a retired president being consulted by the sitting president over some sort of emergency situation. The creator even admitted he wanted This Is Us and The People v. OJ Simpson actor Sterling K. Brown to play the president.
Sorkin captured lightning in a bottle when he created The West Wing. It would be challenging to replicate the success of the original series or the quality that audiences would expect from a sequel.
The original The West Wing cast included Sheen, Rob Lowe, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer, Bradley Whitford, Janel Moloney, and Stockard Channing.
The 2024 reunion special allowed those actors to pay tribute to The West Wing. However, a sequel series would be difficult to bring back the original cast since it’s unlikely that most or any of the characters would return to the White House in a future administration.
Sorkin’s previous idea of having the sitting president lean on Bartlet for advice sounds like the most logical way to revive The West Wing since it would be a fresh start while still including Sheen, so that it’s not completely separated from the original series.
Sheen’s claim that Sorkin never looks back doesn’t exactly align with the creator’s past comments, but it’s possible that he no longer feels he has a great idea for a sequel. No matter what happens with this franchise in the future, The West Wing will always be an iconic show, and nothing will ever change that.
- Release Date
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1999 – 2006-00-00
- Directors
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Thomas Schlamme
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