(CNN) — Netflix has decided to move forward with the final season of “House of Cards” without Kevin Spacey, a source familiar with the decision tells CNN.
Production on the eight-episode sixth season had been hold due to allegations of sexual misconduct made against Spacey.
Production will resume in early 2018, the source said.
Actor Anthony Rapp was the first person to make allegations against Spacey.
Rapp, who appears on CBS’s “Star Trek: Discovery,” alleged in a story by Buzzfeed published in late October that Spacey made a sexual advance toward him at a party in 1986. Rapp was 14 years old at the time.
In response to the story, Spacey issued a statement claiming he did not recall the incident, but he apologized for what he said would have been “deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”
Production on was halted days later. The show was about two weeks into filming the new season.
Members of the “House of Cards” production staff later came forward in a CNN report with more allegations of sexual harassment and one allegation of sexual assault.
Netflix cut ties with Spacey back in November, saying at the time it would “not be involved with any further production of ‘House of Cards’ that includes Kevin Spacey.”
“House of Cards” producer Media Rights Capital also suspended the actor last month.
Netflix announced the show’s sixth season would be its last days after the first round of allegations surfaced. Sources told CNN, however, that the decision to end the series pre-dated the allegations.
“House of Cards” writers have been racing against the clock to find a new direction for the final season in light of Spacey’s absence.
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2017 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. (Photo: CNN/Netflix, File)
