House of Cards will return without Kevin Spacey for final season
Netflix's flagship show will focus on Robin Wright for eight-episode sixth season
House of Cards will return for its final season in 2018 without Kevin Spacey.
While he had started filming scenes for the Netflix show’s sixth season, Spacey was fired after multiple claims of sexual harassment and misconduct arose both during the show’s production and in Spacey’s private life.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos confirmed in a press conference Monday that the series will instead be rewritten to focus on Robin Wright, promising House of Cards‘ final season would bring “some closure to the show for fans.”
It will consist of just eight episodes, rather than the usual 13, with production scheduled to resume in early 2018.
Netflix previously suspended production after allegations first came to light about Spacey.
Eight people who worked on the show told CNN that Spacey had engaged in “predatory” behavior on the set, including touching male crew members and making crude comments towards them.
One production assistant said Spacey put his hands down the assistant’s pants while they were driving to set, telling CNN “I was in a state of shock. He was a man in a very powerful position on the show and I was someone very low on the totem pole and on the food chain there.”
Spacey’s downfall came after Star Trek‘s Anthony Rapp went on the record with Buzzfeed News about Kevin Spacey trying to seduce him when Rapp was just 14 years old.
The incident allegedly took place in 1986, while Rapp was at a party at then 26-year-old Spacey’s home. Rapp said that Spacey “picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don’t, like, squirm away initially, because I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then he lays down on top of me.”
Rapp said that Spacey was “trying to seduce” him. “I don’t know if I would have used that language,” he continued. “But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”
Spacey initially tried to deflect from the controversy by coming out publicly, after saying he didn’t remember the incident.
That response drew outrage from the LGBTQ community, with columnist Dan Savage tweeting, “Nope to Kevin Spacey’s statement. Nope. There’s no amount of drunk or closeted that excuses or explains away assaulting a 14-year-old child.”
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