It's a new day in fictional, sinister, corrupt Washington, D.C. as Netflix's House of Cards prepares to launch its final season with a new president: Claire Underwood, played by the venerable Robin Wright.
The streaming service released the first teaser for the Claire-centric sixth and final season during Sunday night's Oscar broadcast. While slight on juicy plot details, it's a welcome and dramatic return for a series that seemed irrevocably imperiled. After many came forward accusing Kevin Spacey of sexual misconduct, both on the set of House of Cards and throughout his career, the network put the series on hold and suspended its lead actor, who played President Frank Underwood for five seasons.
After an investigation, Netflix announced that it was parting ways with Spacey but that the sixth season would resume filming with Wright in the lead position and the addition of Diane Lane and Greg Kinnear as siblings.
At the end of last season, Claire had cleverly gotten herself sworn in as president and banished Frank from the White House in a betrayal that was stunning even by the craven standards of the Machiavellian central couple. One presumes Frank's banishment, which was left a question mark at the end of the season, will turn into an exclamation point at the beginning of the next.
As played by Wright, Claire has always been intelligent, cunning, and, many would argue, the more interesting character on the series. While Frank's smarmy, manipulative politician was a fascinating character to watch in the early seasons, as he gained power he shed nuance, dulling his edges. Claire, on the other hand, has remained as cryptic and as wily as ever. It's high time that she came into the spotlight.
Wright has scored five Emmy nominations for her work on House of Cards and won a Golden Globe for her work on the series in 2014.
Netflix has not given an exact release date for the final season of House of Cards, but eager viewers can expect to be saying 'Hail to the Chief' to Robin Wright sometime in fall of 2018.
R. Eric Thomas is a columnist for ELLE.com, where he skewers politics, pop culture, celebrity shade, and schadenfreude. He is also the author of Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, a memoir-in-essays.
