Following a production shutdown in the wake of a slew of allegations against star Kevin Spacey, “House of Cards” is planning to resume production next month after extending its current hiatus.
Deadline reports that Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer at Netflix, said Monday that the hit show will go back into production in the new year.
Sarandos added that the show’s previously announced finale season will consist of eight episodes, and will “bring closure of the show for fans.”
After “Star Trek: Discovery” star Anthony Rapp went public with allegations that Spacey, 58, attempted “to get with [him] sexually” when he was just 14, numerous other allegations were lodged against Spacey, including accusations of sexual misconduct on the set of “House of Cards” from members of the crew.
After Netflix’s announcement, Rapp took to Twitter to say he was “gratified” that the crew members and actors “who’ve been in limbo this past month will in fact have the chance to completely there work that had been interrupted.”
With a Netflix investigation underway, a letter (obtained by Deadline) was sent to cast and crew from production company Media Rights Capital indicating the critically acclaimed, award-winning drama will resume production after Dec. 8.
Spacey is not mentioned by name in the letter, which follows a previous statement from MRC announcing that Spacey had been suspended.
Meanwhile, it’s widely assumed that his character — cutthroat U.S. President Frank Underwood — will be killed off in the upcoming season after Netflix issued a statement declaring the streaming service “will not be involved with any further production of ‘House of Cards’ that includes Kevin Spacey.”
You can read the letter, from MRC’s SVP of television business and legal affairs, Pauline Micelli, in its entirety below:
Dear Cast and Crew,
As we move into the holidays, we want to express our appreciation for all of the meaningful messages of support we have received from you and want to update all of our loyal cast and crew on our progress and where things currently stand.
We continue to work with Netflix with the hope of resuming production soon. As we continue these discussions, we have determined together that the crew will be paid for an additional two week hiatus – beginning on November 27th and continuing through December 8th.
In addition to the writers, there will be a small contingency of office/accounting staff who will remain in the production office on a continuous basis. Our hope is that the entire crew will be able to reconvene when production resumes, but we want you to know that we will certainly understand if crew members need to find other work in the interim, which will prevent them from re-joining us. We sincerely appreciate all you have done.
Cast and other union members who are not actively working will be paid in accordance with applicable union guidelines through this period and we will be reaching out directly to your representatives to work through the details; we will get to everyone as quickly as possible and appreciate all of your patience here.
These last two months have tested and tried all of us in ways none of us could have foreseen. The one thing we have learned throughout this process is that this production is bigger than just one person and we could not be more proud to be associated with one of the most loyal and talented production cast and crews in this business.
We will provide an additional update by 12/8/17.
Thank you all.
Pauline Micelli
