House of Cards Season 5 release date news: Show to return March 2017 for final season?

There has been no official confirmation so far from Netflix about the expected return of the hit political drama-thriller "House of Cards" for its fifth season. The recently concluded Season 4 contained a lot of twists and turns and one can easily say that another season is needed to tie all the loose ends, especially that President Frank Underwood is vying for a re-election. Amid the silence of the media-streaming company and the show's production team itself, rumor has it that Season 5 will premiere in March 2017 and likely mark the series' farewell.

The Independent UK reported that "House of Cards" Season 4 finale diverted the course of the story and the upcoming season might set up in a slightly different tone. It was also reported that the long-time "House of Cards" showrunner Beau Willimon left the show even before Season 4 premiered on Netflix. It was later announced that Melissa James Gibson and Frank Pugliese will act as the showrunners for Season 5.

Willimon's exact reason for quitting the show after four successful seasons is still not clear, although he claimed that he found other opportunities to focus on. Yibada noted Willimon's departure as a possible reason that Netflix has still not announced the renewal of "House of Cards" after Season 5. Although in a separate report from Independent UK, Spacey stated that the series could go on without Willimon, saying that newcomers Gibson and Pugliese is going to do great as showrunners.

Another likely reason for the political series to conclude in Season 5 is the source material of the show, which is Michael Dobb's original novel of the same name. It was said that the Netflix original series already exhausted almost all events that transpired in Dobb's trilogy of novels. If "House of Cards" is to continue after Season 5, the creative team had to formulate a new story of their own, which is not yet seen to happen at the moment.