Netflix’s Matt Thunell Replaces Bill Bost As President Of Skydance Television

There’s a change at the top of Skydance Television.

Netflix’s VP of Spectacle and Event Television Matt Thunell, who has been responsible for series including Stranger Things, is replacing Bill Bost.

Thunell becomes President of Skydance Television with Bost leaving to form his own production shingle with an overall deal at the company.

It comes weeks after Skydance Media completed a $400M strategic investment, led by KKR, which values the company at over $4B.

Bost was in the role for two and a half years, replacing Marcy Ross, who launched the television arm of David Ellison‘s film production and financing company.

Bost’s departure comes after wrapping the seventh and final season of Netflix’s Grace and Frankie – the streamer’s longest running series. He is thought to want to be more closely involved with the creative process.

He has spent 12 years at the company, starting out as David Ellison’s executive assistant. He was responsible for launching series including Apple TV+’s Foundation, which has been renewed for a second season, and Amazon’s Reacher, which is also going into it second season.

He will remain as an exec producer on Skydance TV’s upcoming Apple series The Big Door Prize with David West Read, and on Cipher, which has Matt Bomer attached to star, for Peacock, in association with Anonymous Content.

Thunell will now lead the development and production of Skydance Television’s slate across broadcast, cable and streaming platforms, which also includes Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Condor, Amazon’s Alex Cross and an untitled spy series starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first ever scripted television series. He will also oversee Skydance Television’s creative, production, and business affairs teams.  

Thunell, who has spent the last eight years at Netflix, has worked on series including The Umbrella Academy, Shawn Levy’s All the Light We Cannot See and David Benioff and DB Weiss’ epic saga Three Body Problem in addition to Stranger Things and The Queen’s Gambit.

Netflix declined to comment as to whether Thunell would be replaced.

Before joining the Spectacle and Event team, he was VP, Overall Deals Series, where he worked with the likes of the Duffer Brothers, Shawn Levy, Brian Yorkey, Steve Blackman, Brad Falchuk, Mike Flanagan, Jason Bateman working on shows including Thirteen Reasons Why, Shadow and Bone, Outer Banks, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Atypical, Black Mirror, and House of Cards. This also included Skydance’s Grace and Frankie.

He joined Netflix in 2015, from The CW, where was a creative executive working on the DC Comics universe series including Arrow and The Flash as well as Jane the Virgin.

Skydance Chief Creative Officer Dana Goldberg said the move was a “milestone time” for the television division. She paid tribute to Bost for his “tireless work” over the last twelve years, and called Thunell “one of the best creative and strategic executives in the business”.
 

Bost said that working alongside “extraordinary storytellers on all sides of the camera has been a dream come true” and was proud of his team’s success through the pandemic. “Like so many, this period has also been a moment of reflection for me, balancing my deep connection to Skydance and the stories we tell, alongside my desire to become more involved in all aspects of creating and producing great TV,” he added.

Thunell called the past eight years at Netflix the “most rewarding of my career”. “Now, I am thrilled to take on this new opportunity at Skydance at such an exciting time in the company’s growth. I’ve partnered with David, Dana, and Bill for years, and can’t wait to work more closely with them, as we further expand the business,” he added.