House of Cards cancelled after Spacey assault allegation

Author: NZ Herald,
Publish Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2017, 9:24AM

The Netflix series House of Cards has been cancelled following a sexual assault allegation against its lead actor Kevin Spacey.

According to Variety, the landmark Netflix original series will end after its sixth season in 2018.

The news comes just a day after allegations were made against Spacey.

In a statement, Netflix and producer Media Rights Capital said: "Media Rights Capital and Netflix are deeply troubled by last night's news concerning Kevin Spacey.

"In response to last night's revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported. As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time."

Though the decision to end the series was announced, the decision to pull the plug on the series was made several months ago, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the decision.

On Monday, Star Trek: Discovery star Anthony Rapp told Buzzfeed that Spacey made a sexual advance towards him at a party in 1986, when Spacey was 26 and Rapp was just 14.

Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of sexual assault on Monday

Following the allegation, Spacey released a statement on Twitter in which he claimed he did not remember the incident and that he was "beyond horrified" to hear of the story.

Spacey also came out as gay in the statement, a move which has drawn criticism from the LGBTQ community and a number of fellow actors.