The Diplomat boss drops season 3 spoiler hints after massive cliffhanger

The new season 2 episodes are all available as of today, and the season ends with Rufus Sewell's Hal phoning the president to tell him that his vice president, Grace Penn (played by Allison Janney), ordered a strike on a British warship as part of a tactical move, in a strategy which accidentally led to numerous deaths.

While he was doing so, Keri Russell's Kate finally opened up to Grace about truly wanting her job, and feeling Grace was unfit.

Talk about bad timing, as Hal's call was so distressing to the president that he died there and then, leaving Grace as the new commander in chief.

As to exactly how this will all play in to season 3 remains to be seen, but showrunner Debora Cahn has now given a few hints as to the show's direction in a new interview with Deadline.

Firstly, Cahn hinted that, as in season 2, season 3 is likely to pick up immediately after the finale, in the moments afterwards.

On potential time jumps, she said: "I like to stay open to the idea that, who knows, at some point we skip ahead a year or two, but I find myself always wanting to come into the story just 30 seconds after we left it.

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"I’ve never done that kind of storytelling before, and I think some of it is a desire to be attentive to the fact that people watch over a longer period of time.

"They’re watching two, three episodes in a sitting, and we want to feel like it remains propulsive. It’s like one long story. They’re watching one long movie. But once you get in the habit of doing that, then it’s just fun to write that way."

Meanwhile, when asked what the end of the season means for Kate's vice presidential ambitions, Cahn simply teased "welcome to season 3", hinting that that question will form the thrust of the storyline to come.

As to whether Kate and Hal's relationship can survive following his decision to call the president, rather than the secretary of state as they initially discussed, Cahn said: "These are season 3 spoilers! Can union endure under those circumstances? I don’t know."

Cahn also opened up on the fact that the season sees a female vice president taking charge of the White House - something which could become reality should Kamala Harris win the US election in November.

Asked about how she would reflect on the season in those circumstances, Cahn said: "In some ways, it was really exciting. I’m writing wish fulfillment, and it’s nice that the wish might actually get fulfilled in real life as well.

"She’s a great character, and she’s such a great actor, we want to create a situation that is as rich and goopy as possible for that character.

"But, yeah, it’s intimidating to be talking about something that is playing out. We don’t want to paint ourselves into a corner that makes us look obsolete and sad."

Cahn previously told RadioTimes.com that it was "nail-biting" trying to keep up with real-life politics when writing the show.

She said: "We're not trying to comment directly on what's happening in day-to-day politics, but we do want to be in a conversation that's relevant to where everybody's head is at, and so it's a little bit of a nail-biter to try and hope that we remain as in tune with the zeitgeist, politically, as what's happening day to day."

The Diplomat season 3 will stream on Netflix in the future. Seasons 1-2 are available now – sign up from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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