House of Cards Shutters Production After Kevin Spacey Assault Allegations

In the wake of allegations that its Oscar-winning star Kevin Spacey sexually preyed on a 14-year-old 30 years ago and Spacey's subsequent coming out as a deflection from the ugly news, House of Cards, which was in the middle of shooting its sixth season when the news came down, has suspended production indefinitely, Deadline reports.

As of Monday, when news of the allegations was blowing up headlines and social media, Netflix said it planned to cancel its hit political series House of Cards after its sixth season, which was in production, but that changed as of Tuesday morning.

"MRC [Media Rights Capital] 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," the companies that produce the show wrote in a joint statement to Deadline.

Over the weekend, news broke that Anthony Rapp, a veteran Broadway actor in shows including Rent and a star on the new Star Trek: Discovery, alleged that a drunken Spacey had made sexual advances toward him at a party when he was just 14 and Spacey was 26. Spacey responded with a bizarre statement in which he said he couldn't recall the incident but also apologized if he had in fact made sexual overtures to the young teen Rapp. Spacey followed that up with a grand deflection by taking the opportunity to finally address long-held rumors that he's gay, and he came out publicly.

Both Hollywood and the LGBT community have responded primarily with anger and dismay that Spacey would turn allegations of sexual assault, especially amid the current "me too" climate, into a coming-out party that feeds into the right-wing propaganda that LGBT people are predators by nature.

On Monday, the companies that produce the critically acclaimed House of Cards issued a statement that read, "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."

Meanwhile, Netflix and MRC announced that they are considering potential spin-offs of the series.