The fate of Netflix’s onetime flagship show, House of Cards, has been up in the air in the wake of the growing number of sexual assault claims against Kevin Spacey. Production on the show’s final season is currently paused, and, as of last Friday, Spacey was off the show. In a statement, the streaming giant announced that it “will not be involved with any further production of House of Cards that includes Kevin Spacey.”
Writers are likely racing to rewrite the final season to account for a Frank Underwood–free universe right now, but one brilliant fan has come up with a workaround—just replace Kevin Spacey with King of Queens star Kevin James and call it good.
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The man with the plan, Robbie Pyma, came up with the solution last week and quickly threw together a Change.org petition aptly titled “Keep Netflix’s House of Cards running with Kevin James replacing Kevin Spacey.”
“Losing a great show is hard, no matter the circumstances,” Pyma writes in the petition description. “However with hardship comes the opportunity for a great show to become one of the greatest television shows of all time. I think Kevin James can elevate House of Cards to a globally adored franchise like Game of Thrones and make the entire world focus on one of the most important Netflix Original series there is.”
The world apparently agrees with him, because the petition has pulled in more than 30,000 signatures over the past five days. If it hits 35,000, a letter will be delivered to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, begging him to let the guy from Hitch take his turn as an Underwood.
James has yet to officially respond to the petition, but it seems only natural that he’d jump at the opportunity—he already played the president in Pixels, after all. In the words of one petition signee, “this just makes sense.” Just don’t let Netflix replace Robin Wright with Leah Remini.
