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Here's the first trailer for the Kevin Spacey-free final season of 'House of Cards'

Claire Underwood is ready to carry on Frank's work

Here's the first trailer for the Kevin Spacey-free final season of 'House of Cards'
05 March 2018

You’ve got to feel slightly sorry for the House of Cards team.

After a riproaring first few seasons, they were suddenly faced with the fact that reality was outstripping fiction as Donald Trump’s rise to power provided a story that would have been deemed far too outlandish for a TV series to even contemplate.

As if this wasn’t enough, after a somewhat leaden - but still enjoyable - Season 5, which saw Frank Underwood manipulate various political loopholes to cling on to power, the man who played him, Kevin Spacey, was suddenly embroiled in a series of accusations of sexual misconduct; a situation not helped by his ‘apology’ which was roundly condemned.

Production on Season 6 of House of Cards was suspended in October, then it was announced that it would be the final season of the show, before the inevitable came in early November as it was announced that Spacey had been fired.

As a result, Season 6 has been reduced from 13 episodes to eight, with two whole episodes filmed with Spacey scrapped entirely.

The one piece of luck for the show: Claire Underwood had been installed as the new president by the end of Season 5, a situation which presumably made rewriting marginally easier given that a ‘new’ lead character was already in place. Nonetheless, it’s going to be very interesting to see exactly how they write Frank out of the show without him appearing on screen.

So that makes this first teaser trailer all the more intriguing - and here it is:


Read more: We went to Westminster to learn how to lie


The official US Netflix account was swift to send its support to their new female leader:

Granted, there’s not too much going on in this clip - although the opening portrait of Frank in the distance is a clever nod to the show’s former star - but it’s a welcome reminder that Robin Wright’s brutal character is more than capable of holding the show together on her own.

Season 6 of House of Cards will hit Netflix this autumn

(Image: Netflix)