File this under the worst-kept secret in Hollywood. To the surprise of absolutely no one, uberproducer Ryan Murphy is racing back to his old stomping grounds, and in the process of re-joining longtime collaborator Dana Walden under a new overall deal at Disney.
The decision to reunite with Walden — now the co-chairman of Disney Entertainment — comes five years after Murphy ankled 20th Century Fox TV for a rich deal at Netflix that was reportedly valued at the time at between $250 million-$300 million. That deal came right before Disney acquired 20th Century Fox and Walden, who at the time was Fox Television Group chairman-CEO. There had been speculation that Murphy and Walden might join forces as partners in their own production venture, before Murphy moved to Netflix and Walden shifted over to Disney.
Now, Walden oversees Disney’s full portfolio of entertainment media, news and content businesses globally, including Disney’s streaming business, and the expectation had been that the two would find a way to work together again. (And actually, they have never stopped working together, as the majority of Murphy’s output continues to come from Disney’s 20th Television, including the “American Horror Story,” “American Crime Story” and “9-1-1” franchises.)
Timing of the news is unusual, given the ongoing writers strike, although chatter of Murphy’s return to Disney has been going on for months — really, years — pre-dating the start of the strike. Nonetheless, it’s unclear when such a new deal would start. (Murphy’s pact with Netflix expires at the end of June.) Disney declined comment.
Fueling the talk that Murphy would return full time to Walden and Disney: While he has been prolific under his Netflix deal (debuting 10 projects across film and television in five years), virtually none of those projects have broken out in the way Netflix would have hoped, either with viewers or awards. Then there is the matter of “Ratched,” the Nurse Ratched origin series starring Sarah Paulson that was picked up for two seasons at Netflix just ahead of Murphy signing his overall deal. The first season launched in 2020 to a muted critical reaction. As of now, there are no active plans for a second season to be filmed.
It wasn’t until “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” launched in September 2022 followed by “The Watcher” in October that Murphy had his first bona fide hits for the streamer, with “Dahmer” ranking as the third most popular English language TV season of all time on Netflix.
Meanwhile, Murphy’s 20th TV projects have remained active and popular. He currently has both “9-1-1” and “9-1-1: Lone Star,” which bother previously aired on Fox before the former moved to ABC for the upcoming season. He has also released four seasons of “American Horror Story” on FX since coming to Netflix, as well as two seasons of the episodic anthology “American Horror Stories.” He also has the “American Crime Story” franchise as well as upcoming shows “American Love Story” and “American Sports Story.”
Murphy’s pending return to his longtime home studio comes at a time of increased cost-cutting for the Mouse House: In February, returned CEO Bob Iger announced plans for 7,000 layoffs companywide, which were completed over three waves and concluded in May. The job cuts are part of Disney’s goal to reach $5.5 billion in cost savings — $2.5 billion of that representing “non-content costs” (including labor costs) and an annualized reduction of $3 billion in non-sports content costs. With money top of mind at Disney, bringing someone as pricey as Murphy back into the fold won’t contribute to pinching pennies.
Murphy’s official return to Disney was first reported by Bloomberg.
