The production of the popular Netflix political drama "House of Cards" was suspended Tuesday, following sexual abuse allegations against its star Kevin Spacey.
In a statement, the streaming service and its production partner, Media Rights Capital said they needed time to assess the situation. "MRC and Netflix have decided to suspend production on House of Cards season six, until further notice, to give us time to review the current situation and to address any concerns of our cast and crew," said the companies.
The two companies informed the cast and crew about the decision Tuesday morning in Baltimore, where the production of the show's sixth season has begun.
Aside from suspending the production, the streaming giant also announced on Monday that the next season of the series will be its last. However, a representative of the company has clarified that the company has made this decision months ago, long before the accusations were made public against Spacey.
It is not yet clear if the sixth season of "House of Cards" will be called off entirely, or if its production will be resumed to complete the upcoming final season.
On Sunday, BuzzFeed News published an interview with actor Anthony Rapp, who made allegations that Spacey had made unwanted sexual advance toward him in 1986, when he was only 14 years old.
Spacey posted a statement responding to the allegations made against him. He claimed to have no recollection of the incident, but still apologized to Rapp. He described the alleged act as "inappropriate drunken behavior."
However, Spacey followed his statement of apology with a public announcement that he is gay. Many viewed his coming out as a horrible attempt at deflecting attention from the accusations made against him.
The allegations against Spacey come in the wake of numerous sexual misconduct allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein, who was booted out of his own company as a result of the accusations.
