Four days after the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike, Netflix rolled out the blue carpet for the first post-strike Hollywood premiere of a major studio production attended by talent, Season 6 of the streamer’s British royal drama The Crown.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, one of the four studio CEOs who helped broker the deals with both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA by getting personally involved in the final stretches of the guild negotiations, was soaking it all in.
“It’s a thrill,” Sarandos told Deadline about attending the first major studio premiere with both actors and writers in more than six months. “I haven’t been out in months so this is my first night out too. It’s great.”
Sarandos also made his first public comments about how he feels about the SAG-AFTRA strike being finally over.
“Just thrilled to be back and thrilled to have everybody back,” he said.
This was the first weekend off in a while for Sarandos who, alongside Disney CEO Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and NBCUniversal Studio Group Chairman Donna Langley were deep into the marathon negotiations that led to an agreement after weeks of back-and-forth.
Is he happy with with the agreement and how it came together at the end? “Yes, definitely.”
Hours after SAG-AFTRA and the studios reached a tentative agreement, the guild called an end to the strike, and film and TV productions are now racing to return to filming.
The SAG-AFTRA national board on Friday approved the deal by 86% (not unanimously), and it is now being sent to the membership for ratification.
“I hope so,” Sarandos said when asked whether he was optimistic about the outcome. “it’s all in front of the members now, so it’s up to them to ratify it.”
Sarandos was in his element at the glitzy premiere that followed months of largely fan events studios used to launch new movies and series during the strikes. (Attending cast members included Elizabeth Debicki Jonathan Pryce andKhalid Abdala.) He walked the carpet, shaking hands and taking photos with talent alongside Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria. He even stopped to snap pictures with his phone of some of the costumes from Season 6 that were on display at the event.