The 12-episode Season 5 of Showtime's CIA thriller Homeland has begun shooting in Berlin with the addition of  Miranda Otto, Sebastian Koch, Alexander Fehling and Sarah Sokolovic to play alongside mainstays Claire Danes (Carrie Mathison) Rupert Friend (Peter Quinn), F. Murray Abraham (Dar Adal) and Mandy Patinkin (Saul Berenson), the network announced Monday.

To be shot entirely in Germany, Homeland Season 5 will start two and a half years after the end of the fourth season as Mathison struggle with guilt and disillusionment as CIA station chief in Islamabad and on the frontline of the U.S.'s war on terror, said The Wrap.

Joining Mathison on her self-imposed exile in Berlin and working for a private security firm will be Otto During (Koch), a German philanthropist and her boss, Allison Carr (Otto), CIA's Berlin station chief who reports directly under Berenson, and Laura Sutton (Sokolovich), an American  journalist working for the During foundation. Jonas, played by Fehling, is a legal counsel for the During foundation and will also play as Mathison's boyfriend.

In Homeland's Season 5, Matthison's daughter, Carrie, will be between three and four years old and has learned the ability to speak. Cross Map said Showtime is currently casting for Frannie's character.

Danes commented on the upcoming Homeland season, "I think the idea is that she's left the CIA, she's utterly disenchanted and isolated, and during those intervening years, she's acquired an actual life, which she's maybe never had before. That will be interesting, to see her in that context, to be in a relationship, to actually be committed to her child, to have friends. We really have never seen her be relatively normal and social. I mean, I'm sure that will be completely ruined two episodes in!"

Homeland Season 5 Spoilers

Showtime president, David Nevins told critics at the Television Critics Association's semi-annual press tour the next Homeland season will veer away from the stereotype Islamic terrorism plot.

He commented, "We're not necessarily going to stay now and forever [focusing on] U.S. relations in the Muslim world. It's a show ultimately about U.S. foreign policy, U.S. intelligence in the 21st century at a very difficult time. So we're exploring a few different possibilities and may change it up a little bit. The real franchise of the show is how difficult it is to be America in the world in the 21st century, how difficult the choices are. I think that's a story that will remain relevant for as long as they can come up with new stories."

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nevins added Homeland Season 5 will not be focusing on Pakistan. He said, "I don't think they've settled on anything. [Showrunner] Alex [Gansa] is always very adamant he wants to focus on nothing but the season in front of him. But certainly going somewhere else overseas-they're not going back to Pakistan-is one possibility."

The 12-episode fifth season of "Homeland" will premiere in the fall on Showtime.