Ryan Murphy Leaving Netflix After Multi-Million Dollar Deal Expires

Netflix is saying goodbye to one of its most high-profile showrunners.

Ryan Murphy is cutting ties with the streamer now that his five-year production deal — worth a reported $300 million — is expiring. According to Bloomberg, who first reported the news, Murphy is heading to Disney, where he’ll reunite with entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden, who worked with Murphy on many of his Fox and FX hits. (TVLine reached out to Netflix for comment; a Disney spokesperson declined to comment.)

The Glee and American Horror Story mastermind joined Netflix in 2018 in a splashy deal that called for Murphy to produce new series and films exclusively for Netflix. Since then, Murphy has produced a number of series for the streamer, including The Politician, Hollywood, Ratched and Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, starring Evan Peters as the infamous serial killer. Those shows often topped the list of Netflix’s most-watched shows upon their release, but they didn’t attract the critical kudos and awards buzz that Murphy’s previous productions did. (He also produced the Ewan McGregor limited series Halston and one-off movies The Boys in the Band and The Prom for Netflix.)

Meanwhile, Murphy has continued to serve as an executive producer on several non-Netflix series, including Fox’s 9-1-1 (which is now moving to ABC) and 9-1-1: Lone Star and FX’s American Horror Story, Pose and Impeachment: American Crime Story. He is already set to produce a new season of Feud for FX, starring Naomi Watts.