HOUSE OF CARDS
For Season 3 expect Frank Underwood to square off against his coldest foe yet: Russia.
TORONTO — For Season 3 of House of Cards, expect the dastardly and newly empowered Frank Underwood to square off against his coldest and most formidable foe yet: Russia.
The geopolitical plot line involving Kevin Spacey’s freshly sworn-in president and the distinctly Putinesque Russian leader Viktor Petrov (Lars Mikkelsen) may feel Xeroxed from the morning paper, but Cards creator Beau Willimon swears the show conceived the conflict first.
“Our concern in the writers’ room was that it might be too far afield from reality, because at the time we were conceiving it, nothing was really going on with Russia aside from the Sochi Olympics,” Willimon said this week in a telephone interview.
“As we were writing and filming, Crimea erupted, sanctions were introduced, and all of that happened after we had developed our story.
“So it can seem we were ripping from the headlines or trying to somehow parallel what was going on in current events, but in truth, I guess current events caught up with us.”
With the third season of House of Cards set to hit Netflix on Friday, the Oscar and Emmy nominee was keeping his, ahem, cards close to his chest. But Willimon was willing to share a few details of the upcoming season with The Canadian Press.
Q Frank Underwood has always been a striver. Now that he seemingly has everything he wants, where does he go from here?
A That’s exactly the question we wanted everyone to be asking and the question we asked ourselves in the writers’ room as we began breaking Season 3. For two seasons we’ve seen Frank Underwood trying to climb to the top and now, here he is at the top. Where do you go from here? Is there anywhere higher to go? Is the only direction down? Do you have to fight for your life to stay on the summit? You’ll get answers in Season 3.
Q What does Frank’s presidency mean for (his wife) Claire?
A Claire has always been extremely ambitious — the climb to the top hasn’t been Frank’s alone, it’s been this couple. The marriage between Frank and Claire has always been central to House of Cards. I would say it’s the core of the story.
That’s something we’ll be investigating. We’ve known from the beginning that Claire had a great deal of ambition, now they both find themselves in the White House. What are the outlets for that ambition?
Q The BBC original lasted only three seasons, leading some to wonder whether this will be your last. Would you comment either way on that? A No. No. No. (laughs) Watch the next 13 hours and then decide for yourself. I mean, we have not made any announcements about subsequent seasons. And there may be subsequent seasons, there may not be. But my only focus right now is Season 3 and I hope that’s the audience’s only focus too.