Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live) has left Hulu’s The Dropout, a series based on the ABC News podcast of the same name about fraudulent engineer-entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes, according to Deadline. The actress had been set to star in and executive produce the series since April 2019.
No reason has been given for McKinnon’s departure, but Hulu is moving forward with the series, beginning with the search for a new star, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Production is set to begin in the summer, as planned.
The Dropout follows the story of Holmes, who dropped out Stanford to start Theranos, according to Variety. Holmes attracted investors such as Betsy DeVos and Rupert Murdoch with the invention of the Edison diagnostic machine, pushing the value of Theranos up to $9 billion, but the device never worked as purported. Holmes was indicted in 2018 on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
While Hulu pushes on with The Dropout, McKinnon is also set to star as Carole Baskin in Joe Exotic, limited series about the private zoo owner-turned-federal inmate, who was made famous by the Netflix docu-series Tiger King, that is set for release on NBC, Peacock and USA in 2022, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
For the moment, McKinnon continues to finish out the rest of SNL’s 45th season.