The New SAG-AFTRA Contract Is In Effect: What the 2026 Deal Means for Stunt Work

As of July 1, 2026, there is a new set of rules on every union set in the country. SAG-AFTRA members ratified the 2026 TV/Theatrical Agreement by a landslide, 91.42% to 8.58%, and the four-year deal is now live through June 30, 2030. For anyone working in action, this is not background noise. The contract that governs how stunt performers and stunt coordinators get hired, paid, protected, and scanned just changed, and it changed in ways worth understanding before your next call.

Here is a working stunt coordinator's read on what actually landed, and what it means on the ground in Atlanta, Albuquerque, and Los Angeles.

The Headline: Human Performance Is Now the Default, In Writing

The story most of the coverage led with is artificial intelligence, and for good reason. The 2026 deal builds on the digital replica language from the last contract and tightens it considerably. The core principle, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, is that producers strongly favor human performances. A studio cannot drop a synthetic performer into a role a human or that human's digital replica would otherwise play unless the synthetic brings "significant additional value" to the production. That is not a handshake. The producer has to notify and bargain with SAG-AFTRA and prove the value, and the standard is enforceable through arbitration.

For stunt work, that principle matters more than it might for a dialogue scene. Action is exactly the kind of work a studio would love to hand to a machine, a fully digital fall, a synthetic fight, a replica taking the hit so nobody has to book the day. This contract makes that harder and more expensive to do quietly. If a production wants to replace a live stunt performer with a synthetic, it now has a burden to meet, not a blank check.

Digital Doubles: Scanning You Is Not the Same as Owning You

The digital replica protections got broader in a way that closes real loopholes. Under the new terms, a company needs an "articulable business reason" to scan a performer in the first place. Beyond that, replicas are now protected even when they are built without a scan at all, meaning from ordinary photography, according to reporting from The Wrap and IndieWire. An independently created digital replica has to trigger at least scale compensation and residuals. Using a digital replica to dub a performance into a foreign language now requires separate consent. Minors' digital replicas are off the table entirely. And a replica cannot be used in a way that would sidestep the consent process during a strike.

The practical takeaway for any performer: a digital double is treated as its own performance, requiring its own consent and its own compensation. That distinction is the whole ballgame for anyone whose body and capability are the product, and it lands hardest in stunts, which is covered below.

What It Means If You Are a Stunt Performer

This is the part to read twice, because several of these gains were written for you.

First, pay. There are general increases to the schedule break amounts, including for weekly stunt performers, with outsized increases for a newly created schedule break that applies only to stunt performers engaged under a multiple-picture or episode contract. The overtime money breaks in Section 25 of the TV Agreement went up too, again with outsized increases for stunt performers on those weekly multiple-picture engagements. On top of that, per SAG-AFTRA, stunt performers working on multiple episodes of the same season, or parts of the same multi-part closed-end picture, are now paid the same weekly flat rate that applies to theatrical motion pictures. If you work series and streaming, which is most of the volume in Atlanta, that flat-rate parity is real money.

Second, residuals. The parties agreed to form a committee to work through mechanisms for possible residuals for "off-camera" stunt performers, and the obstacles to getting there. Be clear-eyed about it: that is a door, not a check. But off-camera stunt residuals have been a long-standing gap, and getting it onto a formal committee is how these things eventually move.

Third, and this is the one that protects your career long term, the AI and digital replica language covers you as a performer whose body is the product. A digital double is now treated as its own performance that requires its own consent and its own compensation. Agreeing to a body scan for a visual effects plate does not sign away your likeness for a sequel, a marketing campaign, or a future production. A studio cannot quietly swap a synthetic in for a live stunt performer unless it can prove that synthetic brings "significant additional value," and it has to notify and bargain with SAG-AFTRA to do it. For action work, which is exactly the kind of performance a studio would love to hand to a machine, that is the protection that matters most.

What It Means If You Are a Stunt Coordinator

The deal creates a multiple picture and episode contract structure that lets a stunt coordinator render services on more than one episode in a given week. The minimum compensation under that engagement is set at the applicable theatrical flat deal minimum and can be negotiated higher. More importantly for the back end, the basis for calculating fixed residuals under that kind of engagement has doubled. It is now built on two day-performer rates, with the possibility of moving to three day-performer rates if on-camera stunt services are rendered as part of the engagement. The contract also adds clarity on prep work, spelling out when a producer owes a coordinator compensation for services on other episodes under a single-picture contract. Anyone who has done unpaid prep that quietly turned into real coordinating work knows why that language matters.

Money and Benefits

Across the board, the contract delivers a 3% general wage increase in each of its four years, per SAG-AFTRA and LA Mag. The health plan contribution rate rises by 1% starting July 1. And in a structural change that has been a goal since SAG and AFTRA merged back in 2012, the deal creates a pathway to merge the SAG-Producers Pension Plan and the AFTRA Retirement Fund. SAG-AFTRA has put the total value of the improvements north of 700 million dollars. For a career performer, the pension and health movement can matter as much over time as the day rate.

The Regional Read: Atlanta, Albuquerque, Los Angeles

A national contract lands differently depending on where you shoot. In Atlanta, where episodic and streaming volume drives a huge share of the stunt calls, the multiple-episode coordinator structure and the improved weekly stunt breaks are directly relevant, because so much of that market is week-to-week series work. In Albuquerque, where features and limited series make heavy use of location and practical action, the stronger footing on human performance and digital doubles protects the exact kind of work New Mexico productions are built around. And in Los Angeles, the center of gravity for both the talent and the technology, every one of these provisions gets tested first. LA is where the AI language will either hold or get challenged, and where a stunt coordinator needs to know the rules cold.

One More Thing Happening Right Now

While the contract took effect, SAG-AFTRA also went public this month urging members, and every Instagram user, to opt out of Meta's new AI image model, which can pull from public accounts to generate synthetic versions of your content, as reported by Variety. It is a reminder that the fight the contract addresses on set does not stop at the studio gate. Your likeness is valuable everywhere, and protecting it is now part of the job.

The Bottom Line

The 2026 SAG-AFTRA contract is not a revolution, it is a serious step forward, and it is in effect today. Human performance is the protected default, digital doubles come with real consent and compensation, and stunt coordinators picked up structural and residual gains that reward the way this work actually gets done. Knowing this contract is part of doing the job right.

If you are staffing action across Atlanta, Albuquerque, or Los Angeles and want a stunt coordinator who understands both the work and the rules that govern it, reach out through realmccoystunts.com.