Netflix officially severs ties with Kevin Spacey & cancels Gore Vidal biopic

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

As allegations of sexual assault against actor Kevin Spacey have piled up, Netflix has been scrambling to figure what to do with one of their flagship series – HOUSE OF CARDS. The house started to tumble at the start of the week when the shocking news about Spacey broke, and as the week comes to a conclusion Netflix has officially come out and said it will no longer be working with the actor on HOC or any future projects.

Late last night Netflix put out an official statement saying that they would not be involved with any production of HOC if it includes Spacey, nor would it be releasing the upcoming biopic GORE about the famed author and intellectual, Gore Vidal, which has already concluded filming. On the other hand, HOC producer Media Rights Capital used different, more open-ended phrasing, saying that Spacey has been “suspended” as the allegations continue to be investigated:

Netflix:

Netflix will not be involved with any further production of House of Cards that includes Kevin Spacey. 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.

MRC:

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. MRC, in partnership with Netflix, will continue to evaluate a creative path forward for the program during the hiatus.

This all comes from developments over the course of less than a week, wherein on Monday Netflix said the upcoming sixth season of HOC (which has been filming for over a month) would be the final season – an announcement made only hours after the first allegation against Spacey came to light. Since then, it was announced that filming had been suspended on the show, and later theories began to swirl as to how to continue the show without Spacey, including having the character, Frank Underwood, killed off. Though the fate of the show is still up in the air as Netflix and MRC come to an agreement as for how to proceed, it seems like the killing off of Underwood is certain, and the torch will likely be handed over to the other series star, Robin Wright, who plays Claire Underwood.

The first allegations came from actor Anthony Rapp who accused Spacey of bringing him into his bed when Rapp was only 14, with more allegations coming out about Spacey since then. The situation hit home for Netflix when numerous people came out saying Spacey harassed them on the set of HOC, with sources saying Spacey made the set of the show a "toxic" environment.

Netflix and MRC are currently exploring several spinoffs within the HOC world, including one centered on Michael Kelly's Doug Stamper, however, when it comes to the continuation of the main series, Netflix and MRC may be on slightly different pages. While MRC seems to only keep Spacey suspended, Netflix is firmly no longer in the Spacey camp on any level. Who knows if this means they will, in fact, proceed with only Wright as the focal point of the final season, or if they'll even continue with season six at all. What this ultimately proves is that we are rapidly moving into a society where people in the Hollywood industry are no longer going to be getting away with sexual assault of any kind. I don't believe Spacey will ever be able to recover from this without vanishing from the world into the foreseeable future. This isn't the end either. There will be more developments on this as time goes on, but hopefully what comes from is this is that victims of sexual assault feel they can come forward. Spacey is only one in a growing list of exposed celebrities, and each one will face the consequences of their actions.