Aaron Sorkin Considers ‘West Wing’ Reboot After White House Visit

Aaron Sorkin was visibly emotional Friday during his visit to the White House to celebrate the 25th^th anniversary of “The West Wing” — so much so that he envisions a revival of the critically beloved political drama.

“If I had an idea, sure,” Sorkin said. Variety “I haven’t thought about it seriously, honestly, until today… We’ll see what happens when I wake up tomorrow. But, if you ask me now, that’s how I feel.”

Sorkin, director/executive producer Thomas Schlamme, and stars Martin Sheen, Richard Schiff, Dulé Hill, Janel Moloney, Emily Procter, Melissa Fitzgerald, and Mary McCormack met with President Joe Biden in the Map Room and then were given a personal tour of the building. (President Biden then left for meetings in Delaware.) Later, first lady Jill Biden hosted a formal ceremony in the Rose Garden for the show, which was held just outside the West Wing and the Oval Office.

“I got a few ideas for episodes while walking around the White House,” Sorkin said. “Like, ‘Why have we never done this? Why have we never done that?’”

Sorkin said he has been hesitant to do a new West Wing in the past because he was concerned that audiences would miss the original cast too much. “I think a new president would have a hard time living up to people’s memories of Martin,” he said of Sheen and his character, President Jed Bartlet. “But maybe enough time has passed and we’re looking at a whole new generation. A generation that, by the way, thanks to streaming, thinks we’re doing the show today!”

Sorkin said he had no political agenda when it came to considering a “West Wing” revival. “I just thought it was a great environment to work in,” he said. “There are all kinds of stories that come and go that you can tell, and this kind of ambitious, idealistic, romantic writing is a perfect fit for me.”

Of course, the political environment has changed dramatically since “The West Wing” ended after seven seasons in 2006. And Sorkin admitted, “We couldn’t imagine any crazier stories than the ones we’re actually seeing.”

He acknowledged that sticking to an aspirational, idealistic story could be “very difficult” in this climate. “Because part of it is being idealistic, you have to make the story feel like it’s happening in the world that we live in for it to work,” he said. “You have to make the story feel like our world. So it would be difficult, but as Brad Whitford, played by Josh Lyman in the Season 3 premiere, “20 Hours in America,” says, “it’s going to be difficult,” and Toby says, “the difficulty is what makes the story good.”

Sorkin also said it was interesting to consider whether a second Trump presidency would make reviving “The West Wing” more or less appealing to him. “It would certainly incentivize us to do it, but it would also present problems for us,” he said. “We worry that everything we do on the show will be seen as a refutation of Donald Trump’s world.”

Channing Dungey, president of Warner Bros. TV, who was also at the White House, said she was open to whatever Sorkin decided to do. (She has hinted in the past that she would be open to a new version of “The West Wing.”)

“There are a lot of shows right now that are getting reboots, and I think it would be hard to go back to The West Wing, but I wouldn’t be disappointed in Aaron,” she said. “He’s a very smart guy. What I love about The West Wing is that it wasn’t a partisan show. It was a show about people who were willing to fight for something bigger than themselves. They had regular arguments and debates between the two sides. I love that idealistic vision of how things can work. If you were starting now, today, in the current climate, it would definitely be different. The political landscape has changed a lot since that show premiered.”

Dr. Biden, Sorkin and Sheen all spoke at the White House event, and Sorkin was applauded for pointing out that Joe Biden’s decision in July to end his presidential campaign for the good of the country felt like an idealistic moment straight out of “The West Wing.”

“I’ve noticed over the years that in times of heightened political tension, pundits warn against a ‘West Wing’ moment, against a selfless act by a statesman, against anyone putting the country first,” Sorkin said in his speech. “But the fact is, ‘West Wing’ moments do happen. And, Dr. Biden, we saw proof of that on the morning of July 21.”

Sorkin later noted that he remembered thinking, when news of Biden’s departure from the race broke, that it was such a “West Wing”-style sacrifice that “you could almost hear the music rising beneath what he was doing.”

Sorkin said he doesn’t mind pundits calling this kind of moment a “West Wing.” “I hope it’s something to aspire to,” he said, especially in this dark and divided political world. “You don’t have to look far to see reminders of the sadness of how far we’ve come. But I don’t think we’ve come so far that we can’t go back. I hope we can fix it.”

The White House event featured many unique touches inspired by the series, including a rendition of the theme from “The West Wing” by the White House Marine Band and a cocktail dubbed “The Jackal,” named after a dance and lip-sync by the show’s press secretary, C.J. Cregg (played by Allison Janney). A “big block of cheese,” another reference to the series, could be found among a host of memorabilia displayed inside a White House exhibit celebrating the 25th anniversary.^th anniversary of “The West Wing,” as well as a model of the series’ set.

“I can’t tell you how many people, from the Marine Corps to the bandleaders to the Secret Service agents to the senior aides, would say that The West Wing is what inspired them to go into public service, and that was a big deal,” Sorkin said. “It was an emotional day. They had clearly watched the show!”

Dungey added: “It’s amazing the impact that ‘The West Wing’ has had over the years. It was really cool to see how excited and inspired so many people were to meet their TV heroes. You can’t help but be impressed by it. There was one moment when they surprised us, as we were going up on the balcony of the East Wing, and they had the Marine Band play the theme song. Everyone had tears in their eyes.”

In his speech, Biden praised the show’s storytelling: “When The West Wing lights up our screens, every opening credit, every fast-paced walk, every brisk walk down seemingly endless hallways — every performance — changes the way we see the public servants behind those white walls, striving for a better future. So whenever we start to slip into cynicism or apathy, we just have to remember Jed Bartlet’s White House. A place where there are big blocks of cheese and everyone belongs. Where good is done. That’s the story The West Wing showed the nation: this family we’re creating here, dedicated to a purpose bigger than any of us.”

Biden then introduced Sheen, who delivered a fiery speech that could have been delivered by President Barlet on the campaign trail, reading Rabindranath Tagore’s “Where the Mind Is Without Fear.” (The poem, written about India under British rule, ends with the phrase “let my country wake up” — perhaps also a call for citizens to stop complacency in the face of the challenge to democracy in the United States.)

Sorkin said his initial plan to mark the 25th^th The anniversary of “The West Wing” was just an email to Schlamme to reflect on the time that had passed. Instead, with the help of Warner Bros. TV, the event turned into a week of celebrations, including a cast reunion during Sunday’s Emmy Awards.

“The idea behind ‘The West Wing’ from the beginning was that in popular culture, our elected leaders are usually portrayed as Machiavellian or idiotic,” he said. “I thought, What if they were as dedicated and competent as the doctors and nurses on a hospital show, the cops on a cop show, the lawyers on a David E. Kelley show? Hopefully, we wanted to entertain you for 9 to 10 hours, captivate you for as long as we wanted your attention, and everything else was a piece of cake.”

A handful of stars, busy filming projects, including Alison Janney, Rob Lowe and Bradley Whitford, were absent from the White House ceremony. “The rest of us are apparently unemployed,” Sorkin joked. To which Biden quickly responded, “Not yet!” she quipped.