Sony Horizon Series Out at Netflix Amid Umbrella Academy ‘Toxic Workplace’ Allegations [UPDATE: JUL 5]

A damning report outlining allegations against Umbrella Academy Showrunner for a hostile/toxic workplace environment at Netflix, and now Sony is pulling the Horizon series.

With the fourth and final season of the Umbrella Academy scheduled to take off on August 8, Rolling Stone published a big expose on the Umbrella Academy Showrunner, Steve Blackman, and how he allegedly fostered an incredibly hostile workplace environment over the period he worked on the four seasons for Netflix.

Twelve employees who worked on the show and an HR complaint were reportedly obtained and used in the report. Sony’s Horizon series (based on the video games) has been pulled from Netflix today as well, whether both instances are related is not known at this time. The streaming service was planning to make the Horizon series a Steve Blackman production.

The exposé details how Steve Blackman allegedly treated staff working on the show and gives many examples. Blackman is said to have sacked a two-person female writing team because one of them was pregnant and “felt ripped off” (this has been denied, with a spokesperson for Blackman clarifying that he was “in full compliance with all policies and regulations”).

Another allegation claims Steve Blackman took credit as a writer on Umbrella Academy, and Writers Guild of America West sided with season four writers over a sole “teleplay by” credit for Blackman, which he had allegedly tried to give himself. Staffers went as far as to warn others from taking a job on the writing team, saying, “Somebody called me, whispering basically into the phone all freaked out, like ‘Don’t take this job.’”

Finally, the report goes into how the staff generally distrusted Blackman over his abusive behaviour and how he allegedly deployed retaliation in response to what he considered a lack of loyalty. Apparently, staff conversing on how to make their characters stronger mid-season in a bathroom had gotten back to Blackman, and their frustration with his reluctance to take advice was allegedly taken as a sign of disrespect for Blackman, and he allegedly terminated employees for this reason.

Amid the workplace being referred to as ‘toxic’ by the twelve staffers included in the Exposé, Blackman, who was reportedly on board with the storyline shift for Elliot Page’s character to mirror what the actor had been going through in real life, had allegedly had different thoughts in private, and wrote in text messages provided to HR “Elliot wants to come out as trans on the show. As Ivan. Oh my fucking God. Kill me now.”

Elliot Page explained that Blackman was receptive and open to Netflix’s ideas, however. The overall atmosphere is described as similar (but very different) to the one outlined in the Nickelodeon documentary Quiet on Set , where Blackman ‘held the keys to everyone’s future.’ The Exposé frames it as suffocating.

It might be due to these reasons that Sony has reportedly put the Horizon series, scheduled to go into production at Netflix, on the shelf. Netflix initially tagged Steve Blackman to serve as showrunner, and that could be the reason the show has been placed on pause, although it has not been confirmed at the time of writing.

Spokespersons for Steve Blackman have come out and denied any wrongdoing on his behalf, said ” and claimed each action he has made while serving as showrunner was made “in compliance with all policies and regulations.” Readers further interested can find the whole damning report from Rolling Stone here .

UPDATE [JUL 5]: A Spokesperson For Steve Blackman Has Issued A Statement Regarding The Allegations

Shortly after our article was posted regarding allegations against Steve Blackman, a spokesperson for Steve Blackman reached out and issued the following statement:

Steve Blackman has a long, ongoing, and close working relationship with Netflix, and signed a new multi-year deal earlier this year. He continues to work on new projects as well as the launch of the fourth season of the Umbrella Academy . It is preposterous and irresponsible to even suggest that there could be any impact of false and absurd allegations against Steve on the status of these projects, in a year with historic writers’ and actors’ strikes and dozens and dozens of project cancellations.

During the correspondence, the spokesperson let us know that both the instance of the Horizon Netflix series being shelved and the ongoing allegations regarding showrunner Steve Blackman have nothing to do with one another and this article has been corrected to reflect this. More information will be revealed as the story develops.