Amidst the sexual harassment allegation hovering over Kevin Spacey, Netflix has said the sixth season of House of Cards will be the end of the show.
The network announced that the Emmy-nominated political drama’s final episodes, starring Spacey and Robin Wright as ruthless political operators in the United States government, will air in 2018.
The announcement comes less than 24 hours after Spacey was accused by Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp of making unwanted sexual advances towards him as a 14-year-old actor in 1986.
Netflix has, however, said it is not the reason for the show coming to an end. The decision to end the show was said to have been made months earlier.
The streamer and Media Rights Capital, producers of the series, released a joint statement on Monday in response to the allegations against Spacey, saying they were “deeply troubled”.
The statement read: “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.”
House of Cards creator and showrunner for its first four seasons, Beau Willimon, also released a statement on Monday via Twitter, saying he “neither witnessed nor was aware of any inappropriate behaviour on set or off” during his time working with Spacey on the show, but that he took “reports of such behaviour seriously, and this is no exception”.
House of Cards, which began in 2013, has been nominated for 33 Emmy awards and eight Golden Globe awards.
Spacey had responded to the allegations with an apology, saying he did not remember the incident.