When we meet Joel Kinnaman on the new season of “House of Cards,” the writers establish his character — presidential candidate and New York Republican governor Will Conway — as the polar opposite of President Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey).

Conway is young, in peak condition, a parent and a loving husband. For a nation looking for an alternative to Underwood’s aging, furtive presidency, Conway is the complete package: A guy who puts videos of his home life on his campaign Web site. “We’ll find out that he has a lot of similarities to Frank,” says Kinnaman, 36. “As political beasts, they are definitely two sides of the same coin.”

Naturally, Underwood despises Conway and his gorgeous wife, Hannah (Dominique McElligott), and tells his wife, Claire (Robin Wright), “We are going to destroy them.”

Kinnaman’s arrival on the show, whose fourth season dropped this morning on Netflix, comes on the heels of star turns by Ellen Burstyn and Cicely Tyson. Underwood first dismisses Conway as a “snot-nosed pretty boy” after first glimpsing his rival in a television news clip. But Conway has an edge even someone as Machiavellian as Frank can’t fathom: Access to a search engine named Pollyhop, which feeds him information on prospective voters, helping him stay one step ahead on the campaign trail.

Is Conway ready for the kind of havoc Frank can wreak? Kinnaman well-remembers the fate suffered by poor Peter Russo (Corey Stoll) in Season 1 (he was murdered in his own garage by Frank, who made it look like a suicide). “He thinks he’s ready,” Kinnaman says.

So, he knows not to get into a car or go into a garage with Frank?

Kinnaman laughs. “You’ll just have to watch and find out,” he says.

The Swedish actor, who first came to prominence in America for his breakout role as stoner detective Stephen Holden on “The Killing,” is the kind of “House of Cards” fan who consumes the entire series the weekend it’s released. Even though he wasn’t planning on returning to TV after making movies such as “RoboCop” — and the forthcoming “Suicide Squad” — the chance to work with both Spacey and writer Beau Willimon proved irresistible.

Before he reported for work, Spacey phoned him. Doing a pretty good impression of the actor’s courtly baritone, he says, “He called me and said, ‘I was hoping the first time we would meet it would be in person.’”

“It was awesome shooting with Kevin,” Kinnaman says in his own voice. “In this role he’s just a tour de force. Working with Beau Willimon is one of the highlights of my career. We were doing a two-and-a-half page speech that he wrote and I realized that he was open to talking to me about it. I thought maybe it could be a little [more] emotional. The next day he completely slapped three new pages that were equally brilliant in front of me. He’s a stone-cold genius.”

“House of Cards” has been renewed for a fifth season and Kinnaman — who moved to the US six years ago — reveals that he will return for more political backstabbing with the Underwoods. He won’t discuss his romantic life but says he’s still friends with his “Killing” co-star, Mireille Enos, who’s starring in “The Catch,” premiering on ABC in late March.

“We were trying to put together a dinner 10 days ago. My dad was visiting and cooking Laotian food,” he says. “But she had to work late at the studio.”

“House of Cards” Season 4 is available Friday on Netflix