Final season of House of Cards to air with Robin Wright in the lead role
Production on the show will resume at the beginning of 2018
After weeks of uncertainty for the House of Cards cast and crew in the wake of sexual harassment allegations levelled at star Kevin Spacey, Netflix has announced that the show will continue for one final eight-episode series without Spacey and with Robin Wright in the lead role.
The streaming service's content chief Ted Sarandos made the announcement on Monday. "We are excited to bring closure to the fans," he told The Hollywood Reporter.
The announcement comes a month after producers Media Rights Capital had halted production on the sixth season after Star Trek: Discovery star Anthony Rapp alleged that Spacey had sexually assaulted him in 1986 when he was 14 years old. Eight current and former members of the House of Cards cast and crew subsequently came forward to accuse Spacey of sexually inappropriate behaviour.
Prior to the latest announcement, Netflix had already made clear that they would not be involved in any future production of House of Cards involving Spacey, leaving the final season – two episodes of which had reportedly already been shot – up in the air.
But the update will actually bring the series a little closer to its source material – Spacey's character dies in Michael Dobbs' book.
And the show's female-forward look was met with great enthusiasm on Twitter:
