 House of Cards, the very first Netflix original came tumbling down like its namesake when star Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual crimes against multiple victims both in the House of Cards crew as well as others from his past, totaling over 16 separate accusations. Spacey's behaviour coming to light resulted in Netflix cutting ties and suing the actor for losses as a result. But in a surprising twist, the following Christmas, and the two after that, Spacey released an ominous message in character as President Frank Underwood. Anyway, all this presumption made for such an unsatisfying ending, and to think it could have been such a memorable send-off, if I didn't pay the price for the things we both know I did do, I'm certainly not going to pay the price for the things I didn't do. This of course is indirectly addressing the less than average reviews the final season of the show received, which was halfway filmed before Spacey was fired, resulting in the original storyline being scrapped, rewrote, and re-shot without him, and having Robin Wright's Claire Underwood take the reins. Kind of like she said she would at the end of season 5, moments after Frank's final on-screen appearance. My turn. However fast forward to now, an emotional Spacey has been seen in accord in London as a non-guilty verdict was delivered of nine sexual offences against four different men. One actually being one of the key witnesses in Spacey's defence. As horrific as the accusations are and whether you believe he is guilty or not, with this outcome, the statue of limitations for some of the remaining allegations, and the deaths of three of his accusers, which is a crazy side note by the way, legally things are improving for Kevin Spacey. And since this verdict, this post-campaigning for Frank Underwood to return as President in 2024 is now trending on X. So I guess now is as good time as any to take a look at what the final season of House of Cards was supposed to look like, confirmed by its producers. Showrunners Frank Puglies and Melissa James Gibson have confirmed what their original plan for season 6 was. IndieWire reported that in the earlier stages of planning they still intended on Claire serving as not just the President, but as the narrator of her own story. It was quote where we wanted to go for season 6 no matter what happened, no matter what the circumstances, we knew we had that. They went on to say quote, the other thing that we had in play that we had planned out in season 5 was that season 6 would be about who owns the White House, end quote. If Spacey hadn't been fired, this would have inevitably climaxed as a fight between Claire and Frank, kind of like what we saw in season 4 during their relationship breakdown. Puglies said quote, essentially at the end of season 5 there's a promise Francis makes that he's going to own the White House by owning Claire, end quote. Gibson then adding quote, he tried to present it as a partnership to her but she, you know, read that otherwise, end quote. Puglies further commenting quote, so again in season 6 we knew that all these forces were trying to control her and own her. That seemed like something we wanted to explore and dramatize. That was always something we wanted as well, end quote. Francis resigning as President to join the private sector was very telling of what the Shepherds ended up being instead. It's been reported that Greg Kinney, who plays Bill Shepherd, didn't film any scenes with Spacey when filming season 6 but Diane Lane, his onscreen sister, did. Which makes you think that the character of Bill was loosely based on what Frank intended to do with the White House from the outside, explaining the constant power struggle we witnessed in season 6. IndieWire reports that Diane Lane, who plays Claire's longtime friend and political operative was not hugely affected by Spacey's firing. Before she shot scenes with Spacey prior to the shutdown, the shift wasn't a huge one for her. Lane has said quote, they managed to find the same trajectory for my character in terms of what she means to Claire, what she interrupts, what she represents. They checked every box so I was lucky, end quote. How interesting it would be for us to get a look at the few episodes they did film or even just the unreleased original scripts but I guess it isn't to be. Another point of reference we have is the 1990 UK version of House of Cards, which I guess is okay to spoil considering it premiered over 30 years ago. But this series ended with Francis Urquhart being shot by his bodyguard under the orders of his wife. There are many similarities between the two shows, more so in the earlier seasons but it is likely the final showdown between Claire and Doug in the Oval would have instead been Frank in Doug's place. But I sincerely hope there was a way better story reason for him being there and a more satisfying tragedy than what we got. House Season 6 was written as widely known as one of the worst final seasons to a hit show we've seen and there are strong arguments for that including the nonsensical and rushed plot choices resulting from the rewrites including but not limited to the murder of multiple key players all at once and the undoing of the Underwood's original plans of their legacy being completely retcontent by Claire getting pregnant. Although Spacey has seen a subtle recent rise in popularity despite the things he's being accused of but not yet charged for it's of course crazy to think Netflix would bring him back on board for any reason but I've seen many people commenting on posts about Spacey tagging other streaming platforms to bring the actor on board again highly unlikely but interesting how the public opinion is starting to shift. But let me know in the comments if you think Spacey will or should act again in the mainstream. I'd love to hear what you think so let me know I'll be down there in the comments. You can also see what I'm watching by following me on TikTok, X and Letterbox which are all linked down in the description. But if you haven't already be sure to subscribe for weekly videos covering the best and worst of movies and television. This is Matt Rogers and that is all.