Days of fire for Netflix: the streaming giant, apparently due to very slow growth and viewership not meeting expectations, is implementing cuts, laying off nearly 1000 people across the company. Although until yesterday it was denied that among the laid off there was Dan Lin, head of the original films division since mid-2024, the news arrived promptly, with a move that is stirring debate. Considering the reasons Lin was placed in that position, were those goals not achieved? Did something specific happen that cost him his job?
Dan Lin exits Netflix, no longer the head of the original films division: is Narnia to blame?
Dan Lin had been chosen by Netflix executives to succeed Scott Stuber in April 2024: these executives, namely Ted Sarandos and peers, were not happy with a strategy for original films that had leaned on big-name auteurs or casts without sparing expenses, with enormous budget outlays for titles like Red Notice, The Electric State, and The Irishman. Lin had taken the mission to heart, according to whispers to Deadline perhaps a bit too much, generally focusing on cheaper works and more oriented toward a general audience, with proposals more guided by the infamous algorithm, handling with little tact figures of considerable stature such as Ben Affleck and Greta Gerwig. In particular, it seems there was months-long fallout with the latter regarding the management of one of the few monumental auteur projects remaining, namely Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, important because conceived as one of Netflix’s first true theatrical releases, slated for a February 11, 2027 theatrical opening. The crisis would have subsided due to top-level interest, but it seems Lin was sidelined on that project, shortly after the quarrel. Deadline sources exclude that the layoff was solely for that reason: since his appointment Lin had not managed to produce big numbers, aside from a few cases like The Rip or Swapped, especially considering that the phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters, the most-watched Netflix original film of all time, had actually been approved by Stuber.
What will happen next? Other persistent whispers suggest the Original Films division (at this point one might rename it to “cinematographic”) could be entrusted to Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, former presidents of Warner Bros. Pictures, recently ousted following the Paramount-Warner merger. Undoubtedly these are heavyweight players, but some of their bets at Warner did not pay off, as with the latest Digger: one wonders how they would endure in a system that lays off a senior executive in just two and a half years, a short window to see the full results of a strategy in this industry.
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