Netflix has announced tonight that the company is parting ways with House of Cards star and executive producer Kevin Spacey. The news comes after production on Season 6 had been suspended following sexual assault and harassment allegations against Spacey. The streaming company also says it will no longer release the Gore Vidal biopic Gore, which was to star the actor.
“Netflix will not be involved with any further production of House of Cards that includes Kevin Spacey,” a spokesman for Netflix said. “We will continue to work with MRC during this hiatus time to evaluate our path forward as it relates to the show. We have also decided we will not be moving forward with the release of the film Gore, which was in post-production, starring and produced by Kevin Spacey.”
Media Rights Capital and Netflix had previously said that they had suspended production to give them time to review the current situation and to address any concerns of the cast and crew. It is unclear how the show will move forward now, but one thing the producers are considering is killing off Spacey’s character Frank Underwood.
Netflix is also considering three different House of Cards spin-off series. Among the in-development spin-offs is one series about Michael Kelly’s “fixer” character Doug Stamper that has Eric Roth as a writer.
House of Cards Season 6 was set to arrive in mid-2018 with the final 13 episodes, but it remains to be seen how that timeline will be affected moving forward.
House of Cards first premiered in 2013 as the very first Netflix original series and has since gone on to be nominated for over 50 Primetime Emmy nominations over the years. The series also stars Robin Wright, Michael Kelly, Jayne Atkinson, Neve Campbell, Derek Cecil, Paul Sparks and Joel Kinnaman.
