The stakes have never been higher in creator and writer Debora Cahn’s The Diplomat. The second season of the Golden Globe Award–nominated drama opens moments after the first season’s climactic conclusion: Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), an American diplomat and ambassador to the United Kingdom, has just learned about an explosion in London that affects her husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell), and members of her staff, including her deputy chief of mission, Stuart Hayford (Ato Essandoh). 

It’s only the latest crisis Kate must navigate: She’s developed a romantic connection with Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison (David Gyasi), while also unofficially auditioning for the role of vice president in a struggling administration back home and investigating an attack on a British aircraft carrier by an unknown perpetrator. 

Showrunner and executive producer Cahn (The West Wing) saw Season 2 as an opportunity to examine the trauma and emotions that arise from such a terrifying event, and the lingering impact this has on relationships, both interpersonal and diplomatic. “This horrific tragedy, and what events like this do to a group of people who are working together overseas, immediately took over the season — almost more than we had initially anticipated,” explains the Writers Guild of America Award winner. “The healing and grieving process is uneven and hard to predict; it was something that we wanted to honor as realistically as possible.”  

Producer and actor Russell was moved by Kate’s inherent messiness as she tries to look the part of rising political star while holding her ground in male-dominated spaces. “What I love so much about what Debora writes is she’s created this world steeped in the minutiae of what it’s like to be a human, just a person surviving in this job, in this world,” says Russell, who has been nominated for an Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her role as Kate Wyler. “And then this huge explosion [comes] out of nowhere. When we all read that in the script, we were like, ‘What?’ It quite literally puts everything in question, everyone in danger.” 

“I think in Kate’s relationship, she was ready to maybe make a different choice and explore a different avenue,” she adds. “And that is not a good thing right now.”

Left questioning whether she should stay in her marriage to ambitious fellow diplomat Hal, Kate continues to maneuver through complex global politics while her husband asserts himself as a power player. “What I love about their relationship is, I know they seem incredibly immature and childish sometimes, but to me, it’s an adult marriage,” says Russell. “They’re so catty and yet so connected. I really feel like they could be divorced, and they would still have the same chemistry when they walked in the room.”

Offscreen, she and Sewell have a much easier collaboration. “We spend a lot of time making fun of each other and laughing and keeping it light and being goofy. Our language with each other is kind of silliness,” Russell says.

“I’m a big believer in instinct, and I had a very strong instinct about who [Hal] should be and what the relationship was going to be like,” adds Sewell. “I do all the research I can, and whatever resonates and tickles goes in; everything else, I’ll go with my instinct. And it was very much the case meeting Keri [that] we just immediately were in sync.” 

The ensemble was eager to return to the stately official residences and buzzing halls of the embassy sets, where they all dove deeper into their characters’ psyches in the wake of the catastrophe. Essandoh calls out how Stuart irrationally blames Kate for the tragedy and how he starts to question if she’s worthy of the vice presidency: “He’s an idealist. I think that’s the thing he struggles with this entire season, because he has to look at this flawed human being as somebody who also is a great leader.” 

This season sees Kate and CIA station chief Eidra Park (Ali Ahn) — who didn’t initially connect as colleagues — proceed as true allies. “Once they get past the initial pissing contest, there’s a real camaraderie with kind of a code, a language of, ‘I know what you’ve been through to get where you are. You know [what] I’ve been through. Let’s just do this,’” Ahn explains. “They’re both really pragmatic, so that helps them, because they take some professional risks together.”

Gyasi says his character, the foreign secretary who finds himself entangled with Kate, is the type of multidimensional role he’s wanted to play since before he was even an actor. “I feel like we’re discovering things about Austin that I hadn’t foreseen,” he says. “You see a bit more of his ambition and survival techniques. In the first season, you get to see his primary colors, and now you get to see more shades in between. There’s a change there, a difference.”

Rory Kinnear, who inspires distrust as slippery UK Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge, also relished reuniting with his character: “I was really thrilled to see Season 2 digging into his backstory. At all times, I’ve tried to make sure he’s as recognizably human as possible rather than just a cipher for the show and for what it’s saying about British political life or political life in general.”

Joining the ranks this season is an actor familiar with wading into the waters of political intrigue. Allison Janney was already a fan of The Diplomat when former West Wing colleague Cahn reached out and asked if she would consider being a part of the series as Vice President Grace Penn. “I could not believe she was asking me to come join this cast. I have to tell you, it was really intimidating because I fell in love with these characters on the screen,” explains the Academy Award winner. “I was really nervous because I thought of [the actors] as these characters.” 

Grace’s arrival on Kate’s turf creates much fanfare, and Janney was thrilled to lean into her character’s dominant persona. “Debora Cahn gave Grace a great entrance,” Janney says. “Grace is a formidable woman, a woman who is usually the smartest person in the room. She’s fierce, she’s a fighter, she’s a player. For someone like me, who’s none of those things, I find stepping into these powerful women is just my joy.” 

Russell, a longtime fan of Janney’s, was elated to get the chance to spar with her onscreen. “[Grace] arrives, and she’s the full package,” says Russell. “She runs circles around these guys. She deals out the agenda, and they have to swallow it, and she’s just deft. She’s like a real diplomat. For Kate, it’s inspiring to see this woman with such power — and then trouble ensues.”

While Kate’s feelings for the vice president may shift throughout the season, Russell’s admiration for her co-star has just gotten stronger since working with her. She says Janney is “just everything you want her to be. She just couldn’t be more fun and is able to be that fun at work, too. [She’s] just that smart that she’s able to be that good and on point while working with you.” 

“Keri has been incredibly welcoming. This is her show, and she has so much energy and joy,” says Janney. “It’s been great acting with her because Debora has written some great scenes, really wonderful scenes for two women. We are going toe-to-toe, and it was a lot of fun creating this love-hate relationship that they have.”

Despite the escalating tension onscreen, going bolder and bigger for The Diplomat’s sophomore season was a welcome challenge for the cast and creatives. “I haven’t had this much fun making something in such a long time — or probably ever,” says Russell. 

Notes Cahn: “It was a bit of a gamble making a TV show about diplomacy; it had been tried and failed in the past. I have always been a real fangirl of the people who do this kind of [diplomatic] work. I think what they do is intense and hard and complicated to understand and relate to. And the fact that people are willing to go with us on a journey into that life, it’s just a great gift. I feel a lot of responsibility. I want to keep them engaged and connected to that world, and I hope they stay with us on the journey.”

A version of this story appears in Queue Issue 19.