House of Cards
“House of Cards” executive producer Michael Dobbs said the sixth season has generated global interest because of the sexual allegations against former lead star Kevin Spacey. Netflix

The Netflix political drama “House of Cards” faced a huge upheaval after its lead star Kevin Spacey was swamped with sexual harassment allegations, but executive producer Michael Dobbs said the attention will at least give the show’s sixth season its “biggest global audience” yet.

Dobbs told BBC that the sexual allegations against Spacey were an unwanted development. “Emotionally, it was a tremendous shock, a huge blow to me,” he admitted.

But despite being the lead star, Dobbs said “no individual is greater than the show,” so the show must go on. “Not even me, if I fell under a bus tomorrow, the thing will, should, must carry on,” he continued. “Thousands of people depend directly or indirectly on the show, so it’s hugely important that it go on.”

This is why they will shift the focus from Spacey’s character Frank Underwood to his wife Claire, who is played by Robin Wright. Before the scandals broke out, they already got two episodes into the last episodes. Dobbs said the past few weeks have been pretty tumultuous since they spent a lot of time “sweating over their candles and quill pens.” But the hard work was well worth it.

“It’s been really, truly difficult. What MRC - the production company - Netflix and the writers have done, I think has been truly superb,” he said. “Already, Robin Wright, had become an equal star. In fact, in many cases she was leading the plot. So, to that extent, it’s been a relatively easy transition.”

When the sixth season’s first episode airs next year, Dobbs is confident that a lot of people will tune in to see what they’ve done. “I think the next episode that comes out, which will be the first episode of the final season, will probably have the biggest global audience of any of the episodes of ‘House of Cards.’ And it does already go all the way around the globe,” he said.

Netflix announced that production for the final season will begin in early 2018. According to Entertainment Weekly, there will only be eight episodes for Season 6.