House of Cards: The Darker Villain Plot That Never Happened
When Cody Fern first stepped onto the set of House of Cards, he was cast as the main villain, a role that promised to be explosive. However, the dramatic evolution of his character was far more surprising than the on-screen tension ever allowed.
Fern initially described his villain as something akin to a Jared Kushner figure, intimately tied to the powerful presence of Kevin Spacey’s President Frank Underwood. Production had begun, promising a dark, high-stakes drama, but before the final curtain call, the entire narrative structure faced a seismic shift.
The bomb dropped in November 2017 when Netflix fired Spacey following serious allegations of sexual misconduct. The fallout was immediate and devastating; production was suspended, and the entire storyline built around the original dynamic collapsed along with Spacey’s departure. Fern recounted this pivotal moment, noting that while they had filmed for months, the creative path hit a sudden stop: “We filmed for a couple of months and then the nuclear bomb hit.”
When filming finally resumed in January 2018, the writers had to redraw the map. The narrative pivot involved replacing Frank Underwood with Robin Wright’s Claire Underwood, and the original villain role was retooled. Fern returned for the final season, but his role was significantly reduced, allowing the show to evolve dramatically.
His character, Duncan Shepherd, remained, but he shed the heavy burden of his initial incarnation. Duncan was the son of a wealthy power broker, Annette Shepherd, and the family attempted to destabilize the presidency alongside Annette’s brother, played by Greg Kinnear. Though these threads remained, Fern acknowledged that the character found a new, softer identity.
He described Duncan Shepherd as “a wonderful wallflower” in the finished series. This change provided Fern with a unique vantage point, allowing him to experience the ride from the beginning to the end of the show. “So I got to have the pre- and post- experience. And I’ve got some wild stories,” he shared while promoting his directorial debut, House of Cards Had a Much Darker Villain Story That Never Happened.
Despite the dramatic overhaul, Fern expressed genuine excitement about the project, stating that he was “over the moon” when he joined the cast in early 2018. He also clarified that his character was never intended to be a lover of Frank Underwood, confirming that the final version offered a fresh, evolving story while still embracing the complex history of the production.
Buy on Amazon
Credit
