Aaron Sorkin, the creator of the popular political drama, The West Wing, has revealed that he’s considering a reboot of the series after attending a 25th anniversary celebration for the show at the White House this past Friday.
Speaking to Variety in an interview on the same day, Sorkin explained that he had only begun seriously contemplating a West Wing reboot after attending the event. “I didn’t think about it seriously, frankly, until today,” he said. “I just got a couple of ideas for episodes just walking around the White House. Like, ‘why didn’t we ever do this? Why didn’t we ever do that?’ … We’ll see what happens when I wake up tomorrow. But, if you’re asking me now, this is how I feel.”
Continuing, Sorkin mused on some of the challenges that would be involved in bringing back the uber-idealist show in a political landscape that has evolved significantly since the end of its run in 2006. “We couldn’t possibly come up with stories in the room that are crazier than the actual stories that we see,” he said. “So, it would be hard, but as Brad Whitford, as Josh Lyman, says in the Season 3 premiere: ‘It’s gonna be hard,’ and Toby says, ‘It’s the hard that makes it good.’”
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Sorkin also admitted that in the past, he had reservations about bringing back The West Wing due to concerns that audiences would miss the original cast. “I suspect that a new president would have a hard time living up to people’s memories of Martin [Sheen]. But maybe enough time has passed, and it’s a whole new generation. A generation which, by the way, thanks to streaming, thinks we’re making the show today!”
Warner Bros. TV chairman Channing Dungey, who also attended the anniversary celebration, echoed Sorkin’s sentiment, telling Variety, “There are a lot of shows right now that are doing reboots, and I think it would be hard to go back to The West Wing, but I wouldn’t put it past Aaron. He’s a very smart guy… [but] If you started now, today, in the current climate, it would definitely be different. The political landscape has shifted a lot since this show was made.”
When asked about how the prospect of a second Trump term would impact a possible West Wing revival, Sorkin indicated that he would view it as a creative challenge. “It would certainly present incentives to do it, but also headaches,” he said. “The worry would be that everything we did on the show would be seen as a rebuttal to the world of Donald Trump.”
The West Wing 25th anniversary event itself was hosted at the White House, with appearances by both President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. Also in attendance were many prominent figures from the show, including Sorkin, Dungey, producer Thomas Schlamme, and stars Sheen, Richard Schiff, Dulé Hill, Janel Moloney, Emily Procter, Melissa Fitzgerald, and Mary McCormack.
At the celebration, Sorkin gave a speech alluding to the changes in politics since 2006, and highlighted the idealistic notion of a “West Wing moment” as something for real-life politicians to aspire to. “You don’t need to look very far to see reminders of how sad it is about how far we’ve gone,” he said. “But I don’t think we’ve gone so far that we can’t come back. Hopefully we’ll fix it.”
For more, revisit the 2019 article by Consequence’s Clint Worthington discussing The West Wing’s legacy and how it may have heralded the turbulent period of politics that followed its conclusion.
