The West Wing reboot: Rob Lowe has an idea for who should play the president

Fans have been dreaming of a West Wing reboot for years, and now Rob Lowe’s pitched his idea for what the show should look like.

Rob Lowe has an idea for who should play the president in a potential West Wing reboot.

Lowe played deputy communications director Sam Seaborn on the show, and when asked by BBC Radio 5 if he’d be willing to appear in a new series, he said, “Of course I’m in!”

The only thing holding back a reboot, according to Lowe, is series creator Aaron Sorkin.

“I don’t want to pour water on it, but I don’t think he is (keen),” Lowe said.

“I think in a perfect world there would be a version of it, but the problem with it is that he, as of yet, has been unable to figure out what that show looks like.”

Aaron Sorkin.

Rob Lowe.

Lowe believes the answer as to what the show could look like lies in an episode from season 3 called Hartsfield’s Landing.

“I think all he (Sorkin) needs to do, frankly, is go back and watch the show where Bartlet says: ‘Sam you’ll be president one day, don’t be afraid’.

“There’s your show,” Lowe said. “Aaron Sorkin … You came up with it already, let’s go.”

Sorkin had a different idea about who would play the president in a West Wing reboot when asked about it in a 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“Sterling K. Brown as the president, and there’s some kind of jam, an emergency, a very delicate situation involving the threat of war or something, and (President) Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen), long since retired, is consulted in the way that Bill Clinton used to consult with Nixon,” he said.

Sterling K. Brown would be Sorkin’s pick to play the president. Picture: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

Lowe is the latest West Wing star to express interest in a reboot, with Martin Sheen (President Bartlet), Richard Schiff (Toby Zegler), Bradley Whitford (Josh Lyman) and Allison Janney all saying in the past they’d be keen.

The West Wing first aired in 1999 and finished its seven-year-run in 2006, having won 26 Emmy Awards.

Lowe quit the show in season 4 over a pay dispute after producers refused to raise his salary from $US75,000 an episode to the $US300,000 an episode that Martin Sheen was getting paid.

West Wing cast John Spencer as chief of staff Leo McGarry, Rob Lowe as deputy communications director Sam Seaborn, Martin Sheen as President Josiah Bartlet, Allison Janney as press secretary C.J. Cregg, Moira Kelly as political consultant Madeline Hampton and Bradley Whitford as deputy chief of staff John Lyman. Picture: NBC

Sorkin also quit the show at the end of season 4 and revealed in 2016 he had only been able to watch 20 seconds of the remaining three seasons that were made without him.

“It felt like I was watching someone make out with my wife — it felt horrible,” Sorkin said.

Sorkin acted on the advice of Seinfeld co-creator Larry David who told him not watch the show when he departed. David left Seinfeld after seven of its nine seasons.

“The show is going to be great, and you’re going to be miserable, or the show is going to be less than great, and you’re going to be miserable,” David told Sorkin. “Either way you’re going to be miserable.”

Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborn in The West Wing.