Yesterday, Netflix announced thatHouse of Cardswill come to a close after its sixth season, which was already in production, over thesexual misconduct allegationsagainst star Kevin Spacey. Now it seems that the final season may not even be completed, with Netflix telling the cast and crew today that production will be shut down indefinitely on the hit series. Here’s what Netflix and production company Media Rights Capital had to say in a joint statement.
“MRC and Netflix have decided to suspend production onHouse of Cards Season Six, until further notice, to give us time to review the current situation and to address any concerns of our cast and crew.”
Both the abrupt cancellation and the production shut down comes in the wake of serious allegations brought forth against Kevin Spacey from actor Anthony Rapp, who alleges that Kevin Spacey madeunwanted sexual advancesagainst him when he was just 14 years of age, when Spacey was 26 years old. Both actors were working on Broadway at the time in a pair of plays, the revival ofLong Day’s Journey Into NightandPrecious Sons, and the incident happened during a party at Spacey’s apartment, where Spacey picked Rapp up and put him on the bed and started climbing on top of him. Anthony Rapp came forward after several allegations came to light following the expose on Harvey Weinstein, uncovering decades of sexual assault and abuse over the past few decades.
Since then, dozens of men and women have come forward with their stories ofsexual abuse, which have lead to a variety of different consequences. Harvey Weinstein was booted from both the movie and TV Academy, along with the Producer’s Guild of America, while Nickelodeon firedLoud Housecreator Chris Savino over sexual harassment claims. As forHouse of Cards, with production shut down indefinitely, it’s possible that Netflix may just scrap what has been shot entirely, and end the series as is, or they could possibly be considering a shortened final season. Still, if Kevin Spacey is brought back after these disturbing allegations have come to light, there will certainly be quite a bit of backlash.
House of Cardsis one of Netflix’s longest-running shows, and the first original series that they developed, although the Norwegian seriesLilyhammerwas technically the first “Netflix original series,” debuting in 2012. We also reported earlier today that Netflix is already planningHouse of Cards spin-off shows, one of which reportedly follows Michael Kelly’s Doug Stamper, who has been described as the, ‘world’s most loyal employee’. Oscar-winning writer and formerHouse of Cardsproducer Eric Roth has been tasked with writing the pilot script for that spin-off. This report fromDeadlinealso revealed thatHouse of CardsSeason 6 was expected to be comprised of 13 episodes, debuting in mid-2018, but with production shut down indefinitely, the future of this final season remains in jeopardy.
