What to Expect from the SAG-AFTRA 2026 Contract Negotiations: AI, Residuals, Health and Pension Plans, and When to Expect a Deal

If you go back to the summer of 2023, fears that the industry was headed toward a writers strike seemed almost like a certainty. Very few thought the actors would also join them on the picket lines. But after 118 days of being out of work, actors approved a new contract valued at $1.11 billion that provided a brand new method for getting compensated from the top-performing streaming series, some strenuous AI protections that some members believe still didn’t go far enough, and much more.

Three years goes by so fast.

Beginning on February 9, 2026, SAG-AFTRA goes back to the negotiating table with the film and TV studios — the AMPTP — in the hopes of striking a new deal and avoiding another strike. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator and national executive director, has not ruled out the possibility of a strike (why would he?) and some of the same issues that were big…