As allegations of unwanted sexual advances in 1986 by Kevin Spacey against a then teenage Anthony Rapp have emerged, Netflix today has decided to pull the plug on House of Cards after the upcoming sixth season.
The decision is coming just over 12-hours after the Star Trek Discovery star first made public his allegations on October 29 of what happened at a party at Spacey’s NYC apartment back in the mid-1980s. Was it always in the cards to end with season 6? No statement has been made as of yet but it feels like the decision was made for the streaming service to find the best way to eventually part ways with the growing controversy.
Late Sunday, Rapp claimed that then 26-year old Stacey drunkenly put the then 14-year old on a bed to “seduce” him. “I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually,” Rapp said last night of the 1986 incident when the Stacey and he were both on Broadway in a revival of Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Precious Sons respectively.
Shortly afterwards, an apologetic Stacey issued a statement on social media saying he “did not remember the encounter” but added he was “horrified” by what Rapp described. “If I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior,” Stacey also said.
In also using the occasion to seemingly shift focus in announcing publicly that he had “choose now to live as a gay man,” The American Beauty star drew harsh rebukes swiftly online and otherwise. As for Rapp himself, the actor said on Twitter after Spacey’s apology and announcement that he had “no further comment ..at this time.”
As the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment and assault allegations continues to grow and Hollywood begins to take a stricter line in such matters, these claims against Spacey also come as the Emmy nominated House of Cards is currently in production in Maryland on its sixth season. In what has been a career-defining and critically praised role for the Oscar nominee, Stacey plays the manipulative and murderous now ex-President Francis Underwood in the Robin Wright co-starring series. Season 5 of the show ended with Wright’s Claire Underwood now in the Oval Office as America’s first female POTUS as Spacey’s Frank Underwood resigned in disgrace.
Having truly launched off Netflix’s explosion of original programming back in 2013, the David Fincher EP’d House of Cards was created by Willimon and based on the 1990 BBC series from Michael Dobbs novel of the same name. Season 6 of House of Cards is expected to debut next year on Netflix.
