Homeland season 5 to touch on Isis after all despite saying extremist group was 'too evil'

Showtime's hit drama will also explore what Putin is 'up to' in Russia

Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison in Homeland

Hit drama Homeland is to touch upon Isis and Vladmir Putin in its fifth season, despite relocating from the Middle East to Berlin.

Plot details are being kept tightly under wraps but Showtime's president David Nevins has dropped some vague hints on what fans can expect from the new run.

"The first episode's going to deal with Russia, being right next to Russia - what's Putin up to? What's going on with this tricky relationship there?" he said on the Television Critics Association press tour.

"It deals with Isis. I feel like this story is a very fresh story. It's themes, I think, will resonate with people. Charlie Hebdo. Edward Snowden. It's interesting elements to this season that brings a lot of things together."

The inclusion of Isis will surprise many viewers after executive producer Alex Gansa previously suggested that the Muslim extremist group may be "too evil" to dramatise on television.

"What Isis is doing on the ground feels so medieval and so horrible that to try and make what they are talking about understandable or relatable is very difficult," he said.

"It's a question that we wrestle with because one of the great things about Homeland is that we are able to comment on current events in a way a lot of shows aren't able to do."

Nevin believes that Homeland is still relevant and popular because it is "never the same season after season".

Further themes to look forward to include Germany's strict privacy laws and the "crossroads between Western Europe and the Muslim world".

Season five picks up two years after season four in Pakistan and will see Claire Danes' character Carrie Mathison "struggling to reconcile her guilt and disillusionment with years of working on the front lines in the 'war of terror'".

Mathison finds herself in a "self-imposed exile in Berlin, estranged from the CIA and working for a private security firm".

Homeland returns to our screens in October and as Danes has a "multi-year deal", she's unlikely to be going anywhere anytime soon.