VIDEO: ‘House of Cards Season 3’ Teases Anxiety-Ridden Season

“You want to know what takes real courage? Holding it all together when the stakes are this high,” Kevin Spacey’s now-President Frank Underwood says in third season glimpse.

In a move that almost seemed planned, just as Kevin Spacey was walking onto the Golden Globe stage to receive his Best Actor in a TV Series, Drama award for his portrayal of Frank Underwood on House of Cards, Netflix dropped a new 45-second teaser for the political series, which offers up a first look at the show’s upcoming third season.

“You want to know what takes real courage? Holding it all together when the stakes are this high,” Spacey’s Underwood says in the trailer. In House of Cards’ Season Three, Underwood – after two seasons of back-channel dealings, murder and masterful manipulation – has finally ascended to the position of President of the United States.

The teaser doesn’t offer much insight into the season’s plot but the parade of foreboding images alone ratchet up the anxiety: A military funeral with three caskets, a foreign leader reluctant to shake Underwood’s hand at a White House photo op, a gathering of protesters and a medley of desperate, grief-stricken looks on the face of Robin Wright Penn’s First Lady Claire Underwood.

The trailer also hints at the growing chasm between the Underwoods. In the teaser’s opening, the couple are seen holding hands at a political function, but by trailer’s end the two are firmly situated on different sides of the frame. In one key shot, we watch the Underwoods enter a room together before heading off in separate directions.

“We’re murderers, Francis,” Claire tells her husband at teaser’s end. “We’re survivors,” Frank Underwood replies.

In Spacey’s Golden Globe acceptance speech, the actor took on almost an Underwood-ian air, telling the celebrities in the audience and the millions watching at home, “This is just the beginning of my revenge.” Spacey, who also loudly dropped an F-bomb in the middle of his acceptance speech, also provided some clues into the show’s new season during a backstage interview with Barkley.

“I can tell you exclusively that there will be scenes and dialogue, movement, surprises,” Spacey said. “Some of it taking place in the White House, some of it taking place elsewhere and there will be shocks and surprise, pulls and turns, yes, you got it from me here.”

House of Cards’ debuts it’s third season, in full, on Netflix on February 27., Season Three will arrive in Africa on M-Net Edge some time this year (No date confirmed yet from broadcaster).