Cody Fern spent the final season of House of Cards playing Duncan Shepherd, but that was not the character he originally signed on to play. Fern says his first version of the role was designed as the main antagonist of Season 6, a figure he described as a “Jared Kushner type.”
Fern made the revelation while speaking with Entertainment Weekly as he promoted his feature directorial debut, Closing Night, at the Toronto International Film Festival. He said he was cast in 2017 and had already filmed for a couple of months when production was thrown into turmoil following misconduct allegations against Kevin Spacey.
Spacey, who played President Frank Underwood, was subsequently removed from the series. The final season was rebuilt around Robin Wright’s Claire Underwood, while Fern eventually returned as Duncan, the ambitious son of Diane Lane’s Annette Shepherd.
Netflix had kept Fern’s character under wraps when it publicly announced his casting in February 2018. The original announcement identified him only as a new series regular joining Wright, Lane, Greg Kinnear and the returning ensemble. Eight years later, Fern has finally described how much larger his first version of the character was supposed to be.
Fern Says He Was Originally the Main Villain
Fern told EW that his original character was closely connected to Frank Underwood’s story and was intended to serve as Season 6’s principal villain. His description of the role as a “Jared Kushner type” referred to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, who served as a senior adviser in the White House during Trump’s first administration, according to the archived White House record.
Fern did not specify which particular aspects of Kushner the writers intended to draw on, and his comments did not suggest that Kushner had any involvement with the production. The comparison was Fern’s shorthand for the fictional role he had been preparing to play.
That version had already reached production. Fern said the cast filmed for several months before work stopped in late 2017, describing the disruption as the moment when the show’s existing plan effectively collapsed.
Spacey’s Departure Forced Season 6 Into a Rewrite
The disruption followed allegations of sexual misconduct against Spacey. Production was suspended, and MRC later removed him from the series. An arbitrator subsequently found that Spacey had violated MRC’s sexual-harassment policy, a ruling that became part of years of litigation over the production costs created by rebuilding the season.
The writers ultimately removed Frank Underwood from the story and returned with Claire as president and Wright as the show’s sole lead. The final season was also shortened to eight episodes.
Fern’s original storyline disappeared with that overhaul. He nevertheless came back to the production and described the experience as giving him a view of House of Cards both before and after one of the largest creative resets in the show’s run.
Duncan Shepherd Was a Much Smaller Version of the Original Plan
The character viewers eventually met was Duncan Shepherd, the son of wealthy power broker Annette Shepherd. Lane played Annette, while Kinnear appeared as her brother Bill Shepherd, with the family operating as influential opponents of Claire’s presidency.
Fern said Duncan retained traces of the character conceived before the shutdown, but not the same narrative importance. Looking back at what survived the rewrite, he called the finished Duncan a “wonderful wallflower.”
That description differs sharply from what Fern knew when he joined the production. During the original rollout in 2018, even basic information about Duncan was being withheld, and Fern publicly pushed back on speculation that his mystery character would be Frank Underwood’s lover. He would say only that he was “NOT a good guy.”
Fern Is Telling the Story While Making His Directing Debut
Fern revisited House of Cards while at TIFF with Closing Night, his first feature as a director. He co-wrote the film with Devon Bostick, with Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts and Dianne Wiest among its cast.
The project marks a different role for Fern after years working primarily in front of the camera, including The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story and American Horror Story. Netflix’s 2018 casting announcement had highlighted his work on Versace when it introduced him as the newest House of Cards regular.
Fern stopped short of telling all of his stories from the disrupted production. He said having worked on both versions left him with some “wild stories,” but did not elaborate on them in the interview.