‘West Wing’ Star Bradley Whitford Joins Martin Sheen As Onboard For Series Reboot
Another West Wing star is weighing in on the possibility of doing a reboot of the popular series about the presidency of Jed Bartlet. Bradley Whitford, who played Josh Lyman, says that, like Martin Sheen, he’s on board, but ultimately, he says it’s up to the show’s creator, Aaron Sorkin.
Page Six has been taking an informal poll to see if they can get the whole cast to weigh in on a West Wing reboot.
“If there was some version of it that Aaron was really into, and you could get the band back together, [then] yeah.”
Whitford says it’s understandable that the show ended before it jumped the proverbial shark. And he doesn’t want to reboot the show just for the sake of nostalgia.
“I think there’s a healthy fear. You want to get out before your banana turns brown, and that was such an amazing experience, my sense is that Aaron is justifiably cautious about doing something that wouldn’t live up to what we did.”
There seems to be more sightings of West Wing stars than usual, and there are times that they are caught at events together. Whitford and Allison Janney were photographed at a premiere at the Tribeca TV Festival yesterday.
Bradley Whitford tells us that he's in for a #WestWing reboot "if there was some version of it that Aaron was really into…" https://t.co/bMo1J9585X
— Christine Burroni (@ChristineBurr) September 22, 2018
Page Six caught up with Martin Sheen earlier in the week and he said he’d be “delighted” to reprise his role as Jed Bartlet, but he’d like to play it as Bartlet, the elder statesman, because he can no longer be the president.
“Well, of course, I would, but I would be too old for the office now. I wouldn’t know how they’d fit me in, but of course, I would be delighted. It’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
But like Whitford, Sheen says he’s open to the whim of Aaron Sorkin, who seems to have his own idea how things should go today in the West Wing of the White House. Sorkin has imagined This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown as president.
“Sterling K. Brown as the president, and there’s some kind of jam, an emergency, a very delicate situation involving the threat of war or something, and [President] Bartlet [played by Martin Sheen], long since retired, is consulted in the way that Bill Clinton used to consult with Nixon.”
Sorkin has acknowledged that NBC has nearly given him carte blanche to bring the series back in whatever way he sees fit. Sorkin says he’s not against the idea, he’s just waiting for the right storyline at the right time.
