“The West Wing” might be returning to office.
Aaron Sorkin, who created the political drama series that aired from 1999 to 2006, revealed after he visited the White House on Friday that he’s thinking about reviving the show.
“If I had an idea, sure,” Sorkin, 63, told Variety. “I didn’t think about it seriously, frankly, until today… We’ll see what happens when I wake up tomorrow. But, if you’re asking me now, this is how I feel.”
Sorkin was joined by Martin Sheen, Richard Schiff, Dulé Hill, Janel Moloney and more cast members from “The West Wing” to commemorate the show’s 25th anniversary.
They were greeted by First Lady Jill Biden who hosted them at a formal Rose Garden ceremony.
“I just got a couple of ideas for episodes just walking around the White House,” Sorkin revealed to Variety. “Like, ‘why didn’t we ever do this? Why didn’t we ever do that?’”
The famous writer and director explained that he’s hesitated bringing back “The West Wing” out of fear fans will miss the original cast.
“I suspect that a new president would have a hard time living up to people’s memories of Martin,” Sorkin said of Sheen, 84, who played ficticious Democratic President Jed Bartlet.
“But maybe enough time has gone by and it’s a whole new generation,” Sorkin added. “A generation which, by the way, thanks to streaming, thinks we’re making the show today!”
The show premiered on NBC in 1999 when Bill Clinton was president. It concluded seven years later during George W. Bush’s presidency.
Sorkin noted it may be “very hard” to create storylines for a possible revival of the show amid the current political climate — especially if Donald Trump gets elected a second time in November.
“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.”
While at the White House, Sorkin compared President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 election to a “West Wing” moment.
“The fact is, ‘West Wing’ moments do happen,” Sorkin said, addressing the first lady. “And Dr. Biden, we saw proof of that on the morning of July 21.”
Over the summer, Sorkin penned an essay in the New York Times calling on Democrats to nominate Republican Mitt Romney as their candidate following Biden’s disastrous debate performance.
“Nominating Mr. Romney would be putting our money where our mouth is: a clear and powerful demonstration that this election isn’t about what our elections are usually about, but about stopping a deranged man from taking power,” Sorkin touted in his op-ed.
After Biden withdrew from the race, Sorkin took back his pro-Romney argument and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
