'House of Cards' gets a belated debut for its fifth season

It appears that Frank Underwood's (Kevin Spacey) most anticipated comeback will be a couple of months delayed as "House of Cards" season 5 nabs a May release date on Netflix.

The announcement — which landed ironically during President Donald Trump's inauguration day — came via a short clip that started with an extreme close up of the upper top of the American flag being blown gently while on its pole. While "Pledge of Allegiance" is being recited, the camera slowly zooms out to a macro shot, showing that the United States flag is actually upside down.

As it turns out, May 30 is the day that viewers will be welcomed back to the unstable Underwood presidency with adversaries coming after the TV POTUS to take over his chair in the Oval office. The seasonal debut is significantly a lot later compared with its preceding seasons which had usually premiered February, with last year's season 4 being the only one that was rolled out in March.

A lot is riding on the upcoming installment of the DC-set thriller, not just narrative-wise, as it also went through a huge personnel shuffle during its hiatus. Season 5 marks the first outing without creator Beau Willimon at the helm of the juggernaut series, which understandably posed some doubts for its longtime fans. With its original showrunner no longer attached to the project, "House of Cards" veteran writers Melissa James Gibson and Frank Pugliese are elevated to share managing duties from here on.

Willimon stepping out of the political series does not really hinder him for making his two cents count in the current real-life spectrum that is happening in the country. In a recent sit-down with TheWrap's editor-in-chief, Sharon Waxman, and the co-author of Politico's Playbook daily newsletter, Anna Palmer, Willimon boldly talked about overcoming the hindrances that the United States is facing rooted on Trump's presidency.

"We have always moved forward, slowly, with difficulty, with pain, with death," he said. "There are times we moved backward, but we always end up in the long term moving forward, improving, involving, and perfecting our democracy. We've moved backward right now... but in the long story that is America we will overcome that, we will move beyond that, and our country will be a better place," he added.