House of Cards producers considering killing off Kevin Spacey’s character

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

In the wake of sexual assault allegations made by Anthony Rapp (Star Trek: Discovery) against Kevin Spacey, Netflix announced that the upcoming sixth season of House of Cards would be the final season of the series. After several others also accused Spacey, Netflix and Media Rights Capital made the choice to put production on House of Cards on hold completely, releasing a statement saying, "MRC and Netflix have decided to suspend production on House of Cards season six, until further notice, to give us time to review the current situation and to address any concerns of our cast and crew." Although it was possible that production with Kevin Spacey could move forward once again, CNN later published a report claiming that Spacey had made the set a "toxic work environment through a pattern of sexual harassment," which caused Netflix and MRC to begin exploring other options to get production back on track, including killing off Kevin Spacey's character of Frank Underwood.

Per Variety, the death of Frank Underwood is just one of the scenarios being discussed, which would leave Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) free to take central stage for the final season. The producers are currently looking through Kevin Spacey's contract to see if they're able to legally move forward without him, or if they're obligated to include him in the remaining episodes of House of Cards. They're also aware that the 300 cast and crew members employed by the series would be put out of work if House of Cards doesn't continue, and feel like they shouldn't be punished for Kevin Spacey's behavior. As production on the sixth season had begun not that long ago, with just two episodes completed, it's thought that Frank Underwood could be written out without too much problem, assuming they're able to wrangle the legal side of things.

Even if the sixth season of House of Cards doesn't move forward, Netflix and MRC have also been exploring several potential spin-offs in order to keep the franchise alive, including one which would focus on Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), Frank Underwood's Chief of Staff.

Any House of Cards fan out there want to chime in? Would you keep watching if they killed off Frank Underwood?