Overview
- Somerhalder told the "Haley on the Go" podcast in July 2026 that he "pulled the plug" on his acting career after the troubled 2019 Netflix series V Wars.
- He said the initial delivered cut was "not even watchable," that he offered to return his salary, and that Netflix allowed him and producer James Gibb to take creative control without providing extra funding.
- Somerhalder and Gibb raised more than $6 million and filmed roughly 10–12 hours of new footage in about six days to rework the show, a schedule he says left him hospitalized from exhaustion.
- Despite the reshoots and the series' strong streaming performance in some territories, Somerhalder says internal executive conflicts led Netflix to quietly cancel V Wars after one season.
- Since leaving acting he and his wife moved out of Los Angeles to focus on family, sustainable farming and businesses, and he says his team later regained the rights to V Wars though reviving it would be difficult.