‘House Of Cards’ Season 5 Release Date: Netflix Confirms Series’ Return In Q2 2017

Fans of the Netflix political drama series House of Cards have been waiting for the announcement of Season 5’s release date and Netflix has finally provided an answer.

Warning: Possible spoilers ahead!

It was previously rumored that the series will begin streaming on Netflix in the first quarter of 2017. Also, being the political drama that it is, House of Cards was said to premiere on Jan. 20 to coincide with Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day. However, the online streaming service shot down those rumors by revealing in a shareholders’ letter that the series’ release date has been moved to the second quarter of this year. This means that fans will not get to see Kevin Spacey play the role of Frank Underwood until sometime in April the earliest.

House of Cards usually debuts in late February, with the exception of Season 4, which premiered in March. This time, the fifth season will take the Q2 slot as Netflix aims to properly time the release of its original content.

“In Q1, we are forecasting a 9% operating margin, higher than our full year target due to the timing of content spend, including moving House of Cards season 5 from Q1 to Q2.”

Screen Crush reached out to Netflix and confirmed that Season 5 will release in the aforementioned timeframe, giving fans something to look forward to from April to June.

Meanwhile, details of the next season of House of Cards have been kept under wraps. Not much is known about the plot for Season 5 but there are predictions as to what could happen next based on how things ended in the previous season. The Hollywood Reporter speculated that the affair between Frank’s wife, Claire (Robin Wright), and Tom Yates (Paul Sparks) will be put to an end.

Although Frank did not mind about having his wife sleep with another man, he will deal with the loneliness by finding a lover of his own. It is also possible that he will send someone to kill Tom.

The face-off between the Underwoods will likely happen as well and it will involve each other’s allies. In Season 4, Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), Frank’s right-hand man, and Leann Harvey (Neve Campbell), Claire’s trusted ally, had a romantic connection that could continue in the next installment. Doug could fall hard for Leann that he will lose his focus and might even give Claire the upper hand during her duel with Frank for the political seat.

However, there is also the possibility that Doug and Leann will realize that the Underwoods depend on them so much and will take advantage of that fact to secure themselves the seats of power. The couple could potentially serve as rivals to the Underwoods.

It should be noted that the above mentioned storylines are pure speculation as Netflix and show executives have not given out plot details for House of Cards Season 5 just yet. It is best to take them with a pinch of salt.

Meanwhile, the series is expected to bring changes after it was reported that Oscar nominee Patricia Clarkson and Campbell Scott have landed major roles in Season 5.

Clarkson and Scott’s roles in the series have not been disclosed but it was mentioned that they will be prominently featured throughout the season. Den of Geek, however, speculated that Clarkson will most likely be Frank’s new adversary.

So far, only Clarkson and Scott’s addition have been reported for House of Cards Season 5. The series now has Frank Pugliese and Melissa James Gibson as showrunners after replacing Beau Willimon.

Willimon, House of Cards‘ series creator and showrunner for the last four seasons of the show, announced his exit in January 2016, just when the new season was given the green light.

[Featured Image by Paul Morigi/Getty Images]