"House of Cards" season 3 ended with Claire leaving Frank Underwood, but on the bright side, Doug returned to his side. But will Frank be the same man without Claire?
At an FYC post-screening Q&A for the show last April, showrunner Beau Willimon, along with actors Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, Kim Dickens and Michael Kelly gave their take on what happened during the season 3 finale, while Willimon shared some tidbits about the upcoming season.
The showrunner spoke to Indiewire before the screening and confirmed that the team was "working on season 4 right now."
"We'll start production in a little under two months, so I already know some of what's going to happen for sure —but I'm not going to tell you any of it," Willimon said.
Although Willimon is keeping mum about details on upcoming episodes, one thing that fans can look out for is the development on the plot which stems from Claire and Frank's separation. The showrunner admitted that he and the team were initially "scared" once they realized that Claire would leave the president. Willimon said that much of the strength of the show is based on the strength of the Underwoods' marriage. But as soon as they decided to explore the reality of the two separating, they knew that there was no turning back.
"We also realized we'd laid the groundwork in the previous two seasons for this conflict between Francis and Claire, and the more we began exploring it, the more inevitable it became," he said.
And now that Doug is back on Frank's side, Kelly is excited about upcoming opportunities for Frank to use him to do his dirty work.
"He's obviously more efficient with Doug by his side," said Kelly.
Meanwhile, Spacey said that he won't be directing any episodes for season 4, like fellow actors Wright and Jodie Foster did for the show in the past. The actor said that it was mainly the lack of preparation time as to why he wouldn't be able to step behind the camera for season 4.
"I've talked about it, but the problem is that because I have so much work to do in the acting department it's very difficult to have the time to prep," said Spacey.
"House of Cards" season 4 will premiere in 2016.
