The first season of Feud, which focused on the complicated relationship between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, was quite the hit at FX. In March 2017, Ryan Murphy revealed that season two would focus on Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ strained relationship. However, he later pulled the plug on the project in August 2018.
At the time, FX explained that the pause in timing was not due to Netflix’s successful royal series, The Crown. “I think there was a very different approach. I happen to really like The Crown. But it’s told from the point of view of the royal family,” FX chief John Landgraf told Entertainment Weekly at the time. “This is told from the point of view of somebody coming into that family a la Meghan Markle. Ultimately, we couldn’t get the material to the place we wanted.”
Now, Ryan Murphy is revealing why the series was scrapped.
“I thought I was going to for a while, I just decided that I couldn’t find my personal way into it, and then I got a deal with Netflix, so I’m no longer at Fox,” Murphy told Us Weekly on April 9 at The Prom special performance to benefit Hetrick Martin, GLAAD and The Trevor Project. “It’s on hold right now!”
In January 2017, Murphy revealed to Us that he would “never do another Hollywood woman vs. woman story,” despite Feud’s success. “I think the scope of the show can go back in history and doesn’t have to be modern.”
While Murphy has inked a large deal with Netflix, he is still producing American Horror Story at FX. On Wednesday, April 10, he revealed the first teaser for the ninth season, set to be titled 1984. Additionally, he’s turning the Broadway musical The Prom into a “movie event” for Netflix and is working on The Politician and Ratched, both for the streaming site.
With reporting by Nicki Gostin
