Kevin Spacey out at 'House of Cards,' Netflix says it won't work with him
Netflix is done with Kevin Spacey.
The actor was suspended from House of Cards, and production on the show's sixth and final season has been shut down. Although Spacey hasn't returned to the set for work since reports of sexual misconduct first surfaced, producer Media Rights Capital made the suspension official on Friday evening.
A source "close to the production" told Variety that Spacey's suspension is a legal necessity before the actor can be formally fired. Some early reports indicated that he had already been fired; that appears to be the plan, but it doesn't seem to have happened yet.
Netflix also moved to sever ties with Spacey to a broader extent, cancelling the planned Gore Vidal biopic Gore, in which the actor was set to star.
Both the streaming service and the House of Cards producer addressed Spacey's removal from the popular political drama series in complementary statements.
From 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."
And from Media Rights Capital: "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."
The MRC statement directly references reports on Friday that Spacey's presence on the set, according to one unnamed production assistant, created a "toxic" working environment "for young men who had to interact with him at all in the crew, cast, background actors."
It's not yet clear what the future holds for House of Cards, though -- for now, at least -- it doesn't appear to be in danger of being canceled completely.
A Friday afternoon story from The Hollywood Reporter suggested -- via "sources" -- that, prior to the Spacey allegations first surfacing, scripts for Season 6 were nearly finished and production had been completed on the first two episodes. During the current shutdown -- which is expected to last no less than two weeks -- the creative team will explore their options for writing Spacey out of the show.
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Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
