Kevin Spacey Fired As Producers Consider How to Make the Show Without Him

Production on House of Cards' sixth and final season was shuttered indefinitely in the wake of allegations that its star Kevin Spacey had sexually harassed or assaulted several men, including eight current and former staffers of the hit Netflix series. As of late Friday, Netflix had fired Spacey and producers considered ways to move the story forward without him.

"Netflix will not be involved with any further production of House of Cards that includes Kevin Spacey," said a Netflix spokesperson in a statement, according to TV Line. "We will continue to work with MRC [Media Rights Capital] during this hiatus time to evaluate our path forward as it relates to the show."

Of course, the most obvious way to finish out the show would be to kill off Spacey's invidious President Frank Underwood and focus the show on Robin Wright's fan favorite Claire Underwood, according to Variety.

Netflix announced it would end House of Cards' run with the sixth season after news first broke that actor Anthony Rapp (Rent, Star Trek: Discovery) told Buzzfeed that a 26-year-old Spacey had sexually assaulted him when he was 14, which led to a domino effect of accusations against the Oscar winner that left the fate of the series in limbo.

With production for season six just getting underway, producers said it wouldn't be too difficult to write out Spacey's character and save jobs for 300 cast and crewmembers who would otherwise pay a further price for his behavior. Cast and crew had already endured the "toxic work environment," in which Spacey groped and propositioned several men, according to CNN.

Spacey's personal house of cards continued to fold in on itself when his agent and his publicist dropped him on Thursday. And in addition to being fired on Friday, Scotland Yard opened an investigation into allegations that he had harassed an actor in London.

Other ideas for how to move forward with the House of Cards' story include a spin-off about Mike Kelly's twisted political adviser Doug Stamper, according to Variety.

But producers weren't the only ones pushing for a show focused on Wright's manipulative Claire. Actress and Twitter activist Jessica Chastain tweeted, "Can #RobinWright just be the lead of @HouseofCards now? We're ready for it."