UPDATE: Production, on the show, according to Deadline, has now been halted indefinitely. “MRC and Netflix have decided to suspend production on House 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," reads the statement from the companies. There's no indication yet of what this will mean for Season 6's planned 2018 debut.
The revelations about the behaviour of powerful people in the film and TV industry continue to reverberate. And in the wake of recent allegations about, and statements from, Kevin Spacey, Netflix has decided to end House Of Cards after the upcoming sixth season.
Star Trek: Discovery star Anthony Rapp alleged on 29 October that Spacey had made unwelcome sexual advances towards him at a party in 1986 when Rapp was 14. Spacey took to Twitter to respond.
And now, Netflix has announced that the decision has been made to pull the plug on the series Spacey has starred in since 2013. While both Netflix and production partners Media Rights Capital haven't specified if the two are directly connected, they did say that they were worried about the issue. "Media Rights Capital and Netflix are deeply troubled by last night’s news concerning Kevin Spacey," the companies said in a joint statement today. "In response to last night’s revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported. As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time."
The final 13-episode run will debut on Netflix next year. The additional fallout for Spacey's career has yet to be seen. These are just the latest revelations to follow the news about Harvey Weinstein's multiple alleged sexual abuses, covered on the Empire Podcast here.
But in a new twist, Variety reports that there are spin-offs under consideration, including one focused on Michael Kelly's Doug Stamper. Eric Roth, who worked on the first four seasons of the original series, is in charge of that version, but there will be other potential series in the works.