Kevin Spacey to pay more than $30 million after getting fired from House of Cards

It’s been a long time since House of Cards, one of the first big Netflix originals, ended. Now, former star Kevin Spacey has been ordered to pay $31 million to the House of Cards production company after getting fired from the Netflix original series, according to a report from Variety.

In November 2021, an arbitrator ruled against Spacey, and the actor was forced to pay nearly $30 million to MRC, the production company behind House of Cards, and the legal fees associated, for violating the company’s sexual harassment policy, according to the report.

As you may recall, Kevin Spacey was fired from House of Cards prior to the final season of the show. Spacey’s character was written out of House of Cards in season 6, and Robin Wright’s character, Claire Underwood, became the focus of the final season.

Why was Kevin Spacey fired from House of Cards?

In 2017, Spacey was suspended and later fired after he was accused of sexual assault and harassment by several people, including people who worked on House of Cards. 

As Variety mentioned in the report, House of Cards was currently filming season 6 at the time that the allegations and suspension happened. All 13 episodes of season 6 were written and two episodes had been filmed. The studio and Netflix were forced to scrap that season and story and start over, basically.

The episode count for season 6 was reduced from 13 episodes to eight episodes, and the show ended after season 6.

Basically, all of this cost MRC A LOT of money, and that’s why Spacey has been forced to pay it back.

All six seasons of House of Cards are streaming on Netflix.