Netflix fires its film boss after tensions with Greta Gerwig and Ben Affleck
Dan Lin only lasted two and a half years in office. His outspokenness and his strategic choices precipitated his exit.
A few days after the departure of Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s head of content (replaced by Peter Rice, a former Disney executive), Ted Sarandos decided to part ways with Dan Lin, the head of the company’s film branch since February 2024. Announcements which come as part of a more global restructuring of the streaming giant aimed at reducing its workforce by 6%.
The reasons for his dismissal are not entirely clear, but as summarized Varietysomething was wrong with the personality and methods of this outspoken producer little appreciated by filmmakers. He leaves with a mixed assessment coinciding with the end of the authors’ policy (Martin Scorsese, Alfonso Cuaron, the Coen brothers, Jane Campion, etc.) led for a time by Netflix.
Certainly, in just two and a half years Dan Lin has not even had the time to supervise the production of a film for Netflix from A to Z. But in this short period of time, he managed to alienate several big names collaborating with the streaming giant.
In recent weeks, Dan Lin has reportedly clashed with Ben Affleck, who has just come out Animals on Netflix, regarding the use of its artificial intelligence platform.
Even more worrying, he offended Greta Gerwig during a video discussion about his film Narnia at $250 million. Four different sources of Variety confirm that Lin was dismissive of the director during a meeting attended by many other Netflix executives. He was then removed from the project.
Netflix fired film boss Dan Lin because he could not find the balance between streaming titles and theatrical release experiments, sources say. Lin and Greta Gerwig did clash over the upcoming “Narnia” movie, but sources say the incident is not directly what led to his firing. On a Zoom call earlier this year, Lin is said to have been “dismissive” to Gerwig regarding the progress of the “Narnia” movie, which carries a $250 million budget. Word traveled fast around Netflix that the meeting had gone south. Soon after, Lin disappeared from the film, per sources, and film VP Doug Belgrad stepped in as the primary Netflix exec overseeing the project (until, of course, he was laid off last week). https://t.co/6uBtvAytLt
— Variety (@Variety) October 20, 2026
Recently, the tabloid Page Six also mentioned friction between Dan Lin and David Fincher over the reshoots requested by the latter for his film on Cliff Booth, which would be at the origin of the rift between the filmmaker and Netflix.
Internally, however, no one claims that these tensions were directly at the origin of Lin’s landing. The turmoil within the company can also be explained by poor performance on the stock market and a drop in subscriber engagement. And it is criticized for not having found the right balance between titles for streaming and theatrical release at a time when Netflix seems to want to give back a certain place to prestige cinema.
In September, we learned that six projects, including The Black Bola, The New Misadventures of Cliff Booth And Narnia: The Magician’s Nephewwere going to benefit from cinema exclusivity for several weeks before being released on streaming.
Dan Lin, however, declared the opposite last June at New York Timesexplaining that Netflix no longer wanted to work with directors who want their films to be released in theaters… To replace him, we are talking about the duo Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, fired by Warner Bros. after the merger with Paramount.
