Robin Wright Fought For House Of Cards To Continue After Kevin Spacey Scandal

House of Cards Robin Wright Claire Underwood Netflix
(Image credit: David Giesbrecht/Netflix)

House of Cards' sixth and final season is a few months away from arriving on Netflix. And as many know, that was not always guaranteed. Stepping into the front seat of the series after five seasons as the co-lead, its star/director is opening up about the fight to save the series. Taking readers behind the scenes in a new interview, Robin Wright describes the fight she waged to get the series a final season following the Kevin Spacey scandal. Wright said:

[The show was] very, very close. Because of the climate at the time. The air was thick, you know. Harvey Weinstein... People were [saying], 'We have to shut everything down or otherwise it will look like we are glorifying and honoring this thing that's dirty.'

Robin Wright shared the intense sequence of events in an interview with Net-A-Porter. The actress recently broke her silence regarding her former co-star in an interview with Today. In it, she described her relationship with Kevin Spacey as only taking place on the set of the series. She added that she did not "know the man."

With the series holding on by a veritable thread, Robin Wright sprang into action. A tidbit that is not a huge revelation. Patricia Clarkson previously revealed that it was Wright who led the charge to save House of Cards, when its end seemed all but certain. Clarkson also discussed Wright's advocating for those whose livelihoods depended on the drama lasting for another season. In her own words, Wright iterated where she was coming from, while defending the show's legacy. Robin Wright said:

Our show's not dirty. I believed we should finish. I believed we should honor our commitment. To the people that loved the show, also. Why quit?. They printed that it was 'only' 600 people out of work, but if you include security, cops, shooting on location in Baltimore, everything, 2,500 people would have been out of a job. And that's not fair -- to take that security away from those people... They didn't do anything [wrong].

In the wake of all that happened, Robin Wright went on to describe the atmosphere on set as one filled with "shock and fear." Recounting the anxiety from people scared of losing their job. And as an executive producer on the series, Wright shared that she felt responsible for them. In the end, Netflix agreed to a sixth season that would bring the political drama to a close, and will bow later this year. The final season will revolve around freshly-minted President Claire Underwood.

Robin Wright will be joined by new cast members Diane Lane and Greg Kinnear. The duo will portray brother and sister, Bill and Annette Shepherd, on the drama. Members of an elite family, they have the ability to hold significant sway on America's political future. It is a story that's ability to be told can be primarily attributed to Robin Wright leading the fight for House of Cards to have its proper ending. That end is not too far around the corner.

The sixth and final season of House of Cards will bow in its entirety Friday, November 2 on Netflix. For other new television content set to premiere on Netflix this year, check out our 2018 Netflix premiere rundown. To find out when new television shows will arrive this fall, check out CinemaBlend's guide to TV's fall premieres.

Britt Lawrence

Like a contented Hallmark movie character, Britt happily lives in the same city she grew up in. Along with movies and television, she is passionate about competitive figure skating. She has been writing about entertainment for 5 years, and as you may suspect, still finds it as entertaining to do as when she began.