Kate McKinnon Drops Out of Hulu’s ‘The Dropout’ Series About Elizabeth Holmes

Hulu’s “The Dropout” will be going ahead without Kate McKinnon, who was set to star in and executive produce the story of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her dramatic fall from grace.

The limited drama series will now look to cast a new actor to play the entrepreneur before the planned summer production start.

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The series is based on ABC Radio and ABC News’ podcast about the disgraced inventor, who dropped out of Stanford to found Theranos. The company invented the Edison machine, a diagnostic tool that promised an easy way to test for 200 diseases. But the machine didn’t work as she claimed, though she lured wealthy investors including Betsy DeVos and Rupert Murdoch.

The company was at one time valued at $9 billion, and Theranos became one of the richest women in the world before being indicted by a federal jury in 2018 on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The podcast’s host Rebecca Jarvis will executive produce, and podcast producers Victoria Thompson and Taylor Dunn will also serve as EPs.

Several Elizabeth Holmes projects were announced after her indictment, including “Bad Blood,” based on the book of the same name, with Adam McKay directing a feature film starring Jennifer Lawrence.

In addition to her ongoing “Saturday Night Live” gig, McKinnon will star as tiger sanctuary owner Carole Baskin in “Joe Exotic,” a limited series about the infamous tiger king, set to air on NBC, Peacock and USA Network.

Deadline first reported McKinnon’s exit from the project.

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