House of Cards Season 6 Delayed Through at Least December
“It only takes ten seconds to crush a man’s ambitions,” recently elected President Frank Underwood said in season 3 of House of Cards. Any ambitions of an Underwood dynasty in the White House will not withstand the weight thrown on it in 2018. Netflix announced House of Cards season 6 will be its finale.
The announcement was made within 24 hours of Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp’s allegations Kevin Spacey, who stars in and executive produces the series, of making a sexual advance at him when he was 14 years old more than 30 years ago. According to published reports, the cancellation notification had already been planned a month ago and is not a response to the claims.
Spacey said he was “beyond horrified to hear [Rapp’s] story,” in a statement released late Sunday. “I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years.”
Spacey’s statement also addressed his own sexuality. “I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man,” Spacey said.
The actor was criticized for using the apology as his platform for coming out.
“Coming-out stories should not be used to deflect from allegations of sexual assault,” GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said.
House of Cards creator Beau Willimon called Rapp’s story “deeply troubling.” He said he never “witnessed nor was aware of any inappropriate behavior on set or off.” He added that he takes “reports of such behavior seriously and this is no exception.”
“Media Rights Capital and Netflix are deeply troubled by last night’s news concerning Kevin Spacey,” Netflix announced in a statement. “In response to last night’s revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported. As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time.”
House Of Cards started filming in November but was put on hiatus. That hiatus may continue through the holidays, based on a letter obtained by TV Line:
Dear Cast and Crew,
As we move into the holidays, we want to express our appreciation for all of the meaningful messages of support we have received from you and want to update all of our loyal cast and crew on our progress and where things currently stand.
We continue to work with Netflix with the hope of resuming production soon. As we continue these discussions, we have determined together that the crew will be paid for an additional two week hiatus – beginning on November 27th and continuing through December 8th.
In addition to the writers, there will be a small contingency of office/accounting staff who will remain in the production office on a continuous basis. Our hope is that the entire crew will be able to reconvene when production resumes, but we want you to know that we will certainly understand if crew members need to find other work in the interim, which will prevent them from re-joining us. We sincerely appreciate all you have done.
Cast and other union members who are not actively working will be paid in accordance with applicable union guidelines through this period and we will be reaching out directly to your representatives to work through the details; we will get to everyone as quickly as possible and appreciate all of your patience here.
These last two months have tested and tried all of us in ways none of us could have foreseen. The one thing we have learned throughout this process is that this production is bigger than just one person and we could not be more proud to be associated with one of the most loyal and talented production cast and crews in this business.
We will provide an additional update by 12/8/17.
House of Cards was the streaming service’s first scripted series when it premiered in 2013. The series was nominated for multiple Emmy Awards. Spacey and costar Robin Wright both won Golden Globes.
House of Cards Season 6 Possible Release Date
We would have expected House of Cards Season 6 to arrive in summer of 2018, but given the ongoing production delays, when (or if) the show will continue is anybody’s guess.
House of Cards Season 6 Story Details
Since it seems unlikely that House of Cards Season 6 will continue Frank Underwood’s story in any meaningful way, we now need to figure out if any of these earlier story hints still mean anything at all.
While speaking about President Claire Underwood with The Hollywood Reporter, Pugilese said, “Now that she’s become more ambitious, or actually just more pronounced with her ambitions openly about what she wants, her complicity is going to be different than Francis’ complicity. How does she manifest her ambitions in that complicity that she’s looking for in the audience and eventually the voter?”
Robin Wright also spoke with the trade about Claire in a potential new season, saying she imagines Claire will be the best president ever depicted on House of Cards. With that said, Wright added, “How she gets there and achieves that is a whole other thing regarding the opera of the show.”
Showrunner Gibson meanwhile told TV Line: “We were trying, in a disciplined way, to navigate that shift at the end of last season [when Claire first talked to the camera] and not overplay it [this season]. But I think it’s inevitable that that will need to be explored further [in season 6].”
