Homeland has taken Judging Amy‘s Barbara Hall to work alongside Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon to evolve the upcoming season.

Barbara Hall has joined James Yoshimura in joining Homeland for season 3, with Hall penning a two year contract with the Showtime commissioners for Homeland. Barbara Hall will join as a Co-Executive Producer for the series and after Showrunner Alex Gansa reportedly voiced that the series was looking for at least one female voice to replace the outgoing Meredith Steihm, and they seem to have found a perfect replacement in Hall.

Steihm left after The Bridge received its first full season ordering, and although Hall is already penning a new series for CBS it appears as though Homeland will be her priority for the time being. Hall will only leave if her pilot is to be picked up, but that won’t happen until 2014/2015 at the earliest for CBS.

Homeland writer-producer Henry Bromell is close friends with Barbara Hall and it’s expected that Bromell was one of the key men behind acquiring Hall into the Homeland series. This isn’t the first time Bromell has been key either, with James Yoshimura having already been a colleague of Bromell’s back in the Homicide days. Alex Gansa certainly respects the opinions of his staff and because of that, Yoshimura and Hall are welcomed to the party.

Homeland‘s writers have been secretly working away for the past few weeks and are believed to have handed Showtime a rough guide of where they will be taking Homeland for the upcoming third season.

Shooting for the third season of Homeland begins in May, and these writers have plenty of time to nail the forthcoming season. Steihm was one of the main writers behind Carrie Mathison’s journey, it’ll be interested to see Hall’s effect on Carrie and how she will change from now on. What do you think is in store for season 3 of Homeland?

Homeland returns to Showtime in the final week of September.