AGBO CEO Chris Brearton frames these hires as strategic vision: 'We are building AGBO for the industry's next evolution,' he said, emphasizing cross-disciplinary leadership that will 'reach audiences wherever they are.' The message is clear β this isn't just expansion, it's a calculated power move.
Sources close to the studio say the gaming hires aren't incidental β they're foundational. With Extraction 3 filming in Australia and Thailand this summer, and two Avengers films landing in theaters through 2027, AGBO is building infrastructure for something bigger than traditional film production. The question isn't if they'll expand into interactive entertainment β it's how fast.
Luke Kallis joins from Snap where Americas revenue grew from $67 million to $2.7 billion during his tenure. Derek Racca brings experience shipping Call of Duty, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom and Starfield β games collectively played by hundreds of millions. Matt Davidson's promotion to COO comes after serving as CFO at Amazon MGM Studios following two decades at MGM.
The Russo brothers aren't just building a production company anymore β they're constructing an entertainment ecosystem designed to dominate the next decade. Watch what happens when these hires start shipping product.
AGBO is making moves, and this time they're not subtle. The entertainment juggernaut founded by Anthony and Joe Russo β the filmmakers behind 'Avengers: Endgame' and 'Captain America: Civil War' β has just completed a significant leadership overhaul, bringing in heavy hitters from Snap, Apple and the studios behind some of gaming's biggest franchises. The most eye-catching hire is Luke Kallis, who joins as president of marketing and growth with explicit orders to build direct relationships with audiences across every medium.
This isn't some mid-level strategist β Kallis has two decades of audience-building experience under his belt. He joined Facebook before it had 20 million users, pivoted to Vevo during the music industry's digital shift, and most recently watched Snap's Americas revenue explode from $67 million to $2.7 billion during his tenure there. That's not a career trajectory β that's a track record of being in the right room at the right time with the right skills.
On the technology side, AGBO grabbed Alex Blickenstaff as vice president of engineering after nearly a decade at Apple, where he built the data engineering behind one of the world's largest platforms. The company also promoted Matt Davidson from CFO to COO β a signal that whatever financial discipline Amazon MGM Studios and MGM demanded has been noticed and rewarded. Davidson spent two decades at MGM before serving as CFO at Amazon MGM Studios.
But it's the gaming hire that might prove most consequential long-term. Derek Racca joins as executive producer of interactive, tasked with building AGBO's slate of games. This isn't a rookie β Racca has shipped titles that hundreds of millions of people have played: 'Call of Duty,' 'The Elder Scrolls,' 'Fallout,' 'Doom' and 'Starfield.' He arrives from Atomic Arcade, a Wizards of the Coast studio, meaning AGBO is plucking talent from one of Hasbro's gaming divisions.
CEO Chris Brearton framed it as evolution: 'We are building AGBO for the industry's next evolution. That requires a cross-disciplinary team of innovative and collaborative leaders.' The hires bring 'expertise in storytelling, audience growth and interactive entertainment,' he added. The timing is notable β AGBO joins SXSW London this week as a major partner, where Anthony Russo, Joe Russo and Donald Mustard will discuss building entertainment across film, gaming and interactive formats.
That's the real headline buried beneath the executive moves: these aren't just new hires, they're architects of whatever comes next. And what comes next is ambitious. AGBO has 'The Whisper Man' starring Robert De Niro dropping this fall, followed by 'Avengers: Doomsday' on December 18 and 'Avengers: Secret Wars' in 2027 β both co-produced with Marvel Studios.
The company is also in post-production with Netflix on 'Tygo' and 'Mercenary,' both set within the 'Extraction' universe, plus John Rambo with Lionsgate. And if that wasn't enough, production on 'Extraction 3' begins this summer across Australia and Thailand. The Russo brothers built AGBO on franchise IP β now they're staffing it to become something Hollywood hasn't quite figured out how to be yet: a seamless entertainment company where the lines between film, gaming and interactive blur into one unified audience experience. Whether they pull it off remains to be seen, but with this kind of talent acquisition, they're certainly not lacking ambition.
