Having suspended production on the sixth and final season of House of Cards earlier this week in the wake of the sexual assault allegations aimed at Kevin Spacey, Netflix has now announced that it has fired the Oscar-winning actor from the acclaimed drama series, and has also shelved his Gore Vidal biopic Gore.
“Netflix will not be involved with any further production of House of Cards that includes Kevin Spacey,” reads a statement from Netflix. 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 postproduction, starring and produced by Kevin Spacey.”
While we continue the ongoing investigation into the serious allegations concerning Kevin Spacey’s behavior on the set of House of Cards, he has been suspended, effective immediately,” added Media Rights Capital.” MRC, in partnership with Netflix, will continue to evaluate a creative path forward for the program during the hiatus.”
As yet, it is undecided as to how the show will progress, but Variety is reporting that several scenarios are under consideration, including killing off Spacey’s character Frank Underwood and concentrating on his wife Claire (Robin Wright) for the final season. Both Netflix and Media Rights Capital also continue to explore the possibility of spinoff shows.
Kevin Spacey has come under heavy fire since it was alleged by Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp that Spacey sexually assaulted him when he was just 14 years old. Spacey was also criticised for his apology, where he used the same statement to come out as a gay man, in what was seen as an attempt to deflect attention from the original accusations.
Despite Netflix’s actions with regards to House of Cards and Gore, the Ridley Scott-directed All the Money in the World – which stars Spacey as oli magnate J. Paul Getty – is still moving forward with its original release plans at Sony.