First Look At Bradley Whitford And Allison Janney For Netflix’s The Diplomat Have West Wing Fans Thinking The Same Thing, And Now I Need A Rewatch

The West Wing may have ended nearly two decades ago and well before the 2025 TV schedule, but the former NBC drama is still popular enough today that there was outcry when it disappeared from streaming and the internet was buzzing when news broke that Bradley Whitford would be reuniting with former co-star Allison Janney on The Diplomat. Their characters likely won’t have much in common with Josh Lyman and C.J. Cregg, and I don’t foresee any fights over secret plans to fight inflation, but a first look at them together for the Netflix show has many West Wing fans thinking the same thing.

In fact, it’s one small detail in the first look photos that prompted flashbacks to The West Wing circa December 2000 and the episode that won Bradley Whitford his Emmy for Best Supporting Actor: “Noël.” Take a look at the Diplomat pics below:

The Diplomat Season 3 will return with even more political intrigue for stars Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell. Allison Janney returns this season and reunites on-screen with Bradley Whitford, who joins the cast this season to play Grace Penn’s husband! #NextOnNetflix pic.twitter.com/xQX4n7t8FAJanuary 30, 2025

Not much is known about Whitford’s new character for The Diplomat other than that he’ll be the First Husband as spouse of President Grace Penn (Allison Janney). In the photos from Season 3 for fans with a Netflix subscription, Bradley Whitford is sporting a bandaged hand. While we’ll have to wait until the show returns for that third season for the context on the bandage, is it any wonder that The West Wing fans on social media immediately started flashing back to the episode in which Josh Lyman had a bandaged hand?

That episode was “Noël,” the Christmas episode of The West Wing Season 2 that aired back in 2000, but all was not merry and bright for Josh Lyman that holiday season. Over the course of the hour, a psychologist got through to Josh so that he would stop claiming that he’d simply hurt his hand by breaking a glass. No, Josh had an undiagnosed case of PTSD after being shot, and he slammed his hand through a window when he was triggered by Yo-Yo Ma beautifully playing in the White House.

And I think it’s an extremely safe bet that Bradley Whitford’s character in The Diplomat will be injured for a very different reason, but I also can’t blame fans for making the “Noël” connection and really feel like that I need to use my Max subscription and rewatch that West Wing episode for myself. As for what fans were saying on X (formerly known as Twitter) about the Diplomatic/West Wing connection, take a look:

@Anyaaaaaaaa8: “His hand still hasn’t healed from Noel”
@ainsleyhcyes: “west wing fandom collectively gasped seeing bradley whitford with a bandaged hand acting with allison janney”
@LemonLymancom: “just seen bradley whitford with his hand bandaged and we all thought of this”
@multifandomsgal: “Bradley Whitford’s character’s hand being bandaged just gave me flashbacks to noël”
@sam_loves_fics: “brad with his hand bandaged, likely thing for his characters to need”
@joshlymoss: “JOSH JOSH HOW DID YOU CUT YOUR HAND”

Whatever the reason for the bandaged hand in The Diplomat, The West Wing fans are flashing back to what happened to Josh Lyman for good reason! Netflix hasn’t announced a premiere date for Season 3 at the time of writing, but I wouldn’t count on it too early in 2025. Season 2 only released in late October of the 2024 TV schedule. The hit drama also stars The Americans alum Keri Russell and The Man in the High Castle‘s Rufus Sewell as well as Allison Janney. You can stream the first two seasons on Netflix now.