New ‘House of Cards’ Season 6 Casting Reveals Original Kevin Spacey Plan
House of Cards did right by Kevin Spacey’s victims to toss existing scripts and reorient the final season around Robin Wright’s Claire. All the same, it seems the latest addition to Season 6 offers a hint at how the final arc for Spacey’s Frank Underwood might have played out.
Following the additions of Diane Lane and Greg Kinnear to the shortened final run, House of Cards has also added current Versace: American Crime Story star Cody Fern to the series regular cast in an undisclosed role. It’s less of a big name than prior additions, sure, but the TVLine write-up contains an interesting detail. It seems Fern was originally hired for the sixth and final season’s first incarnation last year, in which the young actor was “originally eyed to play a new love interest for now-former leading man Kevin Spacey.”
If you’ll remember, the fifth season ended with Frank Underwood resigning the presidency to Vice President Claire, and subsequently contemplating work in the private sector. Season 5 also saw an end to two of Frank’s potential partners, including Paul Sparks’ Tom Yates and Malcolm Madera’s Eric Rawlings, the latter of whom committed suicide by rushing the White House lawn. It’s unclear how large Fern’s original Season 6 role was – ditto whether Lane or Kinnear had been approached – but it’s likely the character would have played a role in Frank’s private affairs, if Netflix considered the revamped casting worthy of its own announcement.
As of yet, it remains unclear how the final season will handle Frank Underwood’s off-screen exit, though filming has officially begun. Once the sixth and final season premieres, producers may feel more comfortable sharing the original outline for Spacey’s character, so stay tuned.
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