The assault allegations may have served as an opportunity to jettison a show that wasn't going very smoothly and would have been costly even if successful. Hollywood Reporter sources have claimed that the unnamed De Niro/Moore series struggled to get off the ground thanks to scripting trouble, and that the deal would have cost $160 million over two seasons. The Romanoffs, meanwhile, cost Amazon 'just' $75 million and is believed to be progressing well. In short: why carry on with a flawed, expensive series that could be tainted by association when taking control of The Romanoffs is a much safer bet?

Amazon's rapid about-face underscores the dangers of betting its future on international blockbusters and scoring A-list actors. While it's doubtful that the online tech giant could have anticipated the scandals, that eagerness to score top-tier projects makes it relatively vulnerable to incidents like this. It's not going to have as many big-name projects lined up as a conventional studio, so it's more likely to be left scrambling if it has to make sudden cancellations.