Hail to the new chief.
After asking viewers to use their imaginations about what the future of House of Cards will look like without star Kevin Spacey, the Netflix series on Sunday night dropped its first look at the upcoming and final sixth season — with Robin Wright firmly taking her place as the show’s leading actor.
“We’re just getting started,” says Wright’s Claire Underwood from behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office. Season six will return with its final eight episodes in the fall, the streamer announced during a quick teaser that dropped during the Academy Awards. (Watch it, above.)
The previous season of the Netflix political thriller had set up Wright’s character, the new President Underwood, to be the show’s star months before news broke of sexual misconduct allegations against Spacey, which ultimately led to his firing from the show. The fifth season ended with Claire uttering the ground-breaking words, “My turn,” after she takes over as president, effectively pushing her husband, Frank Underwood (Spacey), out of the White House.
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After halting production in order to write Spacey’s character out of the show, studio MRC announced that it would resume work on the final season in early 2018. The season was reworked to revolve around Wright’s Claire, though writing out Spacey’s character wasn’t a stretch — in the Michael Dobbs book that inspired the series, Frank dies.
When Netflix announced that it was severing ties with star and executive producer Spacey in early November, sources told The Hollywood Reporter at the time that season six was almost entirely written. The final season was originally supposed to run 13 episodes.
One day after severing ties, the streaming giant had removed Spacey’s image, swapping in a photo of leading lady Wright on the series’ cover photo.
Oscar nominees Diane Lane and Greg Kinnear have joined the cast of House of Cards, which also includes Michael Kelly, Jayne Atkinson, Patricia Clarkson, Constance Zimmer, Derek Cecil, Campbell Scott and Boris McGiver. (Neve Campbell is not returning.)
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(The Hollywood Reporter’s parent company also owns MRC.)
