10 Biggest Missed Opportunities In TV History
6. Not Recasting Kevin Spacey - House Of Cards
The production of House of Cards' sixth and final season faced a massive challenge following the firing of Kevin Spacey after sexual misconduct allegations were levelled against him.
Netflix ultimately decided to kill off Spacey's protagonist Frank Underwood and shift the perspective towards his wife, Claire (Robin Wright), for the final batch of episodes.
But as great as Robin Wright was in the role, the creative just wasn't there, and the final season was massively harmed by the fact that Frank's death clearly wasn't part of the original plan. It was a huge creative pivot, and not one the show handled gracefully at all.
Yet there was perhaps a more elegant solution hiding in plain sight - just recasting Frank.
House of Cards' big narrative gimmick is that Frank regularly breaks the fourth wall to address the audience, so why not simply replace Spacey and have the new actor tell the audience to deal with it?
It certainly would've been a bold move in of itself, but with an A-lister like Bryan Cranston or James Spader filling Spacey's shoes, it just might've worked.
In the very least, it would've made for a more coherent final season than the abject mess we ended up with.