‘Sean Combs: The Reckoning’ Editing Crew Breaks Down the Making of the Hit Netflix Documentary Series

Pictured (Left to Lawful): Charles Divak, Benji Kast, Jack Gravina, Evan Luminous

When it debuted in December 2025, the four-section docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning grew to turn correct into a break hit on Netflix, examining the allegations and moral battles surrounding Sean “Diddy” Combs thru unprecedented fetch entry to to horny, visceral photos. Tracing his myth from his early existence and upward push as a rapper to the tremendous media empire he built, the documentary additionally explores his private existence and the intense crimes he became once convicted of. In October 2025, Combs became once sentenced to four years and two months in penal advanced, fined $500,000, and ordered to support 5 years of supervised release.

Netflix’s documentary is the most in-depth exploration of the case but. How did it come collectively? We no longer too long within the past sat down with editors Jack Gravina, ACE, Evan Luminous, ACE, Charles Divak, ACE, and Benji Kast, ACE, to train relating to the entire route of, from launch to enact.

What’s on Netflix: First of all, congratulations on the sequence. It has been out for a pair of months now, and it’s among the successful documentaries in Netflix history. How enact you all certainly feel about this reception to it?

Evan Luminous: I mediate it’s certainly gratifying due to we set loads time and loads effort into this, and that that you would be in a position to well also enact that and no-one notices. That’s no longer the handiest metric of success, but when many of us spy, it feels certainly, certainly moral and validating.

WoN: The Eddie Awards steal assign of dwelling next week. I saw in nominations that the sequence, particularly Episode 3, ‘Legit Girl,’ has been nominated for Simplest Edited Documentary. What had been your reactions to the nomination?

Charles Divak: Yeah, I indicate, indubitably to be nominated by your peers, it plan one thing extra, moral? Due to those model of of us within the American Cinema Editors are all of us that we regarded up to for years. They’re of us that minimize some fabulous, fabulous stuff. And to procure them vote for you, it’s certainly rewarding.

Jack Gravina: It’s fabulous to be recognised for any mission that you enact. I’m grateful that a mission like this will get recognised due to it appears like right here’s the model of mission that desires to be accessible on this planet. And critically with the climate of every thing moral now, it’s crucial that projects like this fetch recognised.

Benji Kast: Another cool thing about being nominated as a group is recognising that this became once a collaborative effort, and that we all learned a extremely moral symbiosis to assign it collectively. That’s additionally a cool thing to be section of and to be recognised for. By ACE [American Cinema Editors].

Charles Divak: Editing is no longer at all times a crew sport, but when it’s, you blueprint a model of camaraderie with your coworkers.

Image Credit rating: Netflix

WoN: This is barely a gigantic enhancing crew, barely speaking. How did each and each of you collaborate and divide responsibilities?

Jack Gravina: We started off with four editors; there had been four episodes, and there became once one editor per episode.

You fetch one per episode. After which, because it bought closer to a time when Netflix became once squeezing and pressuring us to meet the minimize-off date to fetch this thing out, to maximise ability viewership. We added three extra editors, and an editor had dropped off; it became once a model of things where it became once a rolling edit. That became once how it started.

I started on episode four, I worked on stuff that ended up in three, and worked on items for one. I do know Chuck and Evan, as supervising editors, did an moral job of ensuring every thing match collectively across your full sequence. And they also had been this certainly crucial glue that helped fetch this thing shine and sparkle as a lot because it did. I admire being a glue.

Evan Luminous: As at all times happens, scenes move across the sequence. So Jack will minimize one thing sooner than it ends in three; Chuck is working on one thing on two, and it ends in one. Schedules fetch in-built a vacuum when the realm is level-headed a ideal assign of dwelling.

After which you launch enhancing, and the chaos of the parable ensues, and every thing moral roughly mixes up altogether. And that’s that, then you fetch all your crew, divided across a full sequence.

Charles Divak: One of the major things for this demonstrate became once certainly making an try to convey your full myth —  the 360 peep of Sean Combs.

Many of the things that we had been planting in episode one, you certainly try to have fruit within the later episodes, and you don’t desire these episodes to be minimize in a vacuum where one isn’t speaking to two, and two is no longer speaking to three and four; there need to be a coherent thread of building this psychological profile Sean Combs and what led him to be the person that we glance at the novel time and your full your full actions that led to that.

It’s crucial to procure that roughly collaborative, communicative ambiance. I mediate, certainly crucial to the success of the demonstrate, due to it gave it roughly a fixed layer.

Benji Kast: All of us as editors desire to occupy things too, so there’s a exchange offs where you occupy one thing and somebody else might well inherit it and enact their thing to it. But there’s a cool section to that route of, too, that you feed off of each and each barely about a.

When you’re working to your occupy, which we’ve all performed, you enact your occupy vogue, but whereas you occur to glance how barely about a of us are doing, it has its occupy craft to it in a technique. And besides to, we had been working with a extremely colossal director, Alex Stapleton, and so being in fixed meetings, critically at the stop, with her speaking thru the parable altogether, and the highest plan things had been fitting, restructuring on the flit in most cases. From ultimately to the following, it additionally gave us that roughly adrenaline we had been all feeding off.

WoN: When you occur to began work on the mission, what became once the core editorial mission? What responsibility did you are feeling in shaping the parable for a global target market on Netflix?

Evan Luminous: I mediate whereas you occur to work on a myth like this, where that that you would be in a position to well even procure of us coming forward who’re in most cases telling you relating to the worst thing that ever happened to them, that that you would be in a position to well truly procure a unswerving responsibility to those of us to convey their myth truthfully, to no longer be salacious, but to additionally be definite the paunchy myth will get known.

There are a model of soiled details on this myth that you don’t desire of us to fetch consumed with and forget that there’s a deeper human element besides moral the infant oil, the medication, and whatever. But you additionally need to affirm those things, due to it’s a key section of the parable.

So there’s a responsibility to safe the steadiness between the solemnity of what’s going down and no longer letting the though-provoking details overshadow every thing; it’d be the handiest thing the target market talks about.

Charles Divak: I mediate one other gigantic aspect became once that we had been making an try to demonstrate Sean as an person, paunchy and fleshed out — no longer like a wood profile. This will almost certainly be a monster, right here’s what he does. He did some horrific, terrible things.

We had been making an try to figure out what led him to enact those things; what led him to be the person that he became once. And in issue that intended showing both the certain and the overwhelming unfavorable things about him. And it intended showing him in his childhood, showing that he learned these items, and then applied them in existence but again and but again and over.

Early on, I had a conversation with Evan, where I said, ‘I certainly feel like this guy is taking the precept of a mixtape but again and but again and over,’ in most cases, he’s taking items that he learned within the 70s. And this colossal song that he listened to within the 70s and the 80s, and he’s incorporating that into hip hop within the 90s and making it certainly marketable. But he’s additionally doing that alongside with his existence. He’s taking bits and items from of us that he’s met and systems. And he’s taking those items and developing this unique thing and then advertising it as his occupy. He takes that comparable route of and does it but again and but again and over.

Jack Gravina: It became once the ‘six days’ photos — there became once this photos from the six days sooner than his arrest. I bear in mind coming on the mission and seeing this photos and roughly being blown away and moral seeing Sean in a gentle that you by no plan glance him.

He’s at all times roughly lustrous and curated, and this mundane photos on moral calls, moral in his automotive, roughly having these private moments alongside with his of us. I mediate that became once section of this glue, where whereas you occur to glance that within the context of his entire existence, that that you would be in a position to well also know what he’s like as an person, and that that you would be in a position to well also put collectively that to how he’s going thru history.

We knew we had been going to convey your full myth from his delivery, his childhood, your full plan thru to his arrest, the trial, the verdict, and the sentencing. That became once roughly the licensed opinion. So the utilization of that photos grew to turn out to be the glue. And it’s fabulous, fabulous photos that we had the choice to play with.

What’s On Netflix: The ‘six days’ photos is fabulous. Talking about this photos, it’s so private and extremely chilling. What had been each and each of your emotional reactions whereas you occur to saw it for the major time?

Jack Gravina: Confusion, why would he be doing that? That became once the preliminary reaction. Love, what’s he? What’s going down right here? Why are we doing that? Why is he doing this? You already know, why is he filming?

It gave the impact like he’s truly documented his entire existence. When you occur to dig a miniature bit deeper, you’ve seen that each and each aspect of his entire existence has some develop of protection, whether or no longer it’s blogs, podcasts, or interviews. He’s at all times been doing that.

He knows the media is the most highly efficient instrument on this planet. And he’s making an try to constantly use that to his advantage. It’s moral confusion and shock and roughly curiosity, I guess.

Charles Divak: I had watched it a pair of instances. The first time I watched it, it became once the comparable thing. I became once like, how does this exist? Love, what on earth is going down right here? I don’t know why he would allow this to occur. And it became once moral roughly fabulous, moral observing him enact mundane things like placing on lip balm in a replicate has loads extra context and persona in it.

After which I needed to chat with Alex, and we all did. She said that among the keys is the conceal of Sean Combs. As Jack said, he had a heavily curated persona. Whatever we saw from the outside, he became once very polished. It became once precisely what he wanted us to sight. He became once just like the master of advertising. He marketed himself.

And this photos became once a look beneath that conceal due to it wasn’t curated by him. And there had been moments where that that you would be in a position to well glance him flip on and know he became once on a digicam, and he became once presenting himself in a definite plan. After which there are moments where he would procure edited them out. He would procure minimize them out. But they had been truly showing who he became once, and the raw emotion of him and the section beneath the conceal.

Evan Luminous: I indicate, I had the comparable reactions as all individuals else. How is this doable? What is going down? But a fun aside connected to this photos is that Chuck started on the mission per week sooner than I did. And I bear in mind after his first day, he known as me, and he said, ‘I will’t describe you what it’s till you launch, but now we procure got one thing certainly particular, and it’s going to utterly blow your mind.’

And he became once moral.

Benji Kast: I got right here on a miniature bit later into the mission. And so my first trip became once truly seeing the frigid originate in episode one, where he’s on the decision alongside with his moral crew and his barely about a individuals of his crew, and making an try to battle the mounting complaints and allegations, and having the comparable reaction as all individuals else.

After which I’d affirm for episode four, after we fetch into the trial, when he will get arrested, goes to trial. It became once entertaining to name support to that frigid originate and realise that in episode one — and that that you would be in a position to well also forget it within the event you peep — that’s the major thing that happens within the sequence. By the time you fetch about two-thirds of the plan thru episode four, there’s a recall to that due to you suspect, “Wow, he’s on the ropes, and every thing’s collapsing,” which became once partly correct. But then, whereas you occur to glance it within the context of how the trial played out, you realise, truly, he became once level-headed asserting this develop of mastery of the media of the parable that he at all times had right thru every single time where he became once held to story for these actions right thru his profession.

And in issue that became once for me, that became once a revelatory moment, reaching that level within the trial and announcing, “Oh, wow, all of these items that he’s speaking about doing, he truly did, you appreciate.” The use of social media to try to fetch into the minds of the jurors, things of that model.

What’s On Netflix: Become there any photos particularly that you learned critically deeply troubling, or as an editor, difficult to work on?

Evan Luminous: I indicate, I mediate all of them elevate a unswerving weight. Factual as an person that’s going to work to enact this, it’s loads to retain a watch on. But at the comparable time, with that heaviness, there’s a responsibility.  If I mediate it’s hard to edit the scene, imagine how hard it became once to are dwelling this. So you roughly moral need to affirm, neatly, it’s my job to be definite this myth comes thru, and I’m going to be unswerving to the parable our participants are telling.

Benji Kast: I didn’t work on these scenes straight, but I became once familiar with them as we restructured a miniature bit bit. One of the most Lil Rod stuff, which is additionally in episode four, within the event you peep it, you’ll glance his myth is just like the arc of the Sean Combs methodology, the cycle that he went thru. Lil Rod develop of experienced every portion of that, including doubtlessly sexual assault, and the gaslighting and manipulations are all in there.

Jack worked on that barely barely, and as we watched it and had been restructuring, refining, seeing it so many instances, I indicate, it certainly does launch to fetch to you a miniature bit bit deeper as you peep it but again and but again.

Jack Gravina: For episode four, Alex said, work on the Cassie myth. I didn’t know a lot about Cassie previous the ‘Me & U’ song. I’d seen the video of her getting overwhelmed within the Intercontinental Hotel. And I started working on that. And some of the interviews we had became once with Clayton, the sex employee. So I’m realising that right here’s a 19-year-broken-down woman who’s being swept off her feet by a 38-year-broken-down man and roughly thrown into the mix of things so younger. She moral barely graduated from excessive college.

I mediate it became once moral her myth roughly became once moral it made me gave me this roughly uneasiness. I indicate, your full thing. And next thing you appreciate, she’s handiest 20, 21 years broken-down and he or she’s meeting up with a sex employee, is doing things that appear like, drag, she can be able to affirm it became once consensual for her, but, you appreciate, you’re realising that she’s in a area that it’s maybe very hard to affirm no to those roughly things, and he or she doesn’t try to forestall this. She can get a style of this each day life and then has to retain doing things, allegedly. There are all sorts of debates about it.

I bear in mind having that feeling in my abdominal working on that scene that, like, it became once moral roughly disgusting, the stuff that he became once doing, and then the fact that he’s abusing her, on high of what we glance within the photos. That’s where I started.

Charles Divak: I worked on the scene where Biggie became once shot, and so listening to the 911 calls and cutting that alongside side the photos, I do no longer omit that became once like I became once like,’ wow, right here’s like an fabulous alternative.’ And I became once like, furious to convey the parable.

But at the comparable time, I felt like there’s a rare instance where you fetch roughly a drag in your seek for, like whereas you’re cutting, due to you hear, critically within the 911 name, once they’re speaking to Biggie, they veritably’re like, ‘Are you OK? Are you OK?’ You hear somebody dying, and that caught with me for a whereas —  moral making an try to convey that within the moral plan.

And it’s no longer like we fetch desensitised to stuff due to we’re constantly cutting terrible things. But when one thing hits you want that, it’s rare.

Image Credit rating: Netflix

Hiss me extra about being desensitised to scenes — how enact you’re employed round that?

Evan Luminous: It’s a unswerving thing that happens. And I mediate among the things that editors try to enact is do no longer omit that whereas that that you would be in a position to well also be so familiar with this, an target market sees it, it’s going to be contemporary to them.

I mediate the total edit time on this demonstrate is maybe like 11 months, plus or minus about a weeks. And I bear in mind about halfway thru, I became once speaking to someone relating to the six days of photos, the archival photos that our crew had obtained sooner than Sean’s arrest. And by then, we’d all seen it 10 instances each and each, and we’d been enhancing all of it day. I moral roughly became once like, ‘Oh, when the public sees this, they’re going to lose their minds.’

I don’t train for all individuals, but I ought to affirm I felt like I had forgotten a miniature bit bit relating to the power of that photos. I saved making an try to remind myself that after somebody sees this for the major time, it’s going to be fully revelatory. After which I additionally tried to procure in mind what I felt like after I saw it for the major time, and roughly mission that feeling onto an target market.

There had been moments where I became once like, “Oh, this scene is a miniature bit mundane.” And I became once like, “Oh, no, right here’s a full scene of photos that no one on this planet knows exists that no one has ever seen sooner than.” This goes to be the craziest thing anybody has seen.

Charles Divak: It’s like, if I safe it’s entertaining, then optimistically somebody else will. And so I try to convey the parable like that. And there are a model of instances that I became once attracted to things that had been beautiful entertaining, but that didn’t support the parable of Sean — they weren’t about Sean Combs.

And in issue that roughly became once a key level in constantly deciding: Is this telling us who Sean is? Is this advancing the parable of what happened? Or is this about one thing else? You roughly retain peeling away these layers to try to fetch at the center of it. For me, that roughly cuts out a model of facet things to focus extra on Sean.

Image Credit rating: Netflix

What’s On Netflix: Due to right here’s an ongoing, developing case, did it trade and evolve as you had been working on it?

Benji Kast: From my viewpoint, it changed day by day.  I had come in at a time when the trial had happened, and the sentencing became once developing.

Jack Gravina: I became once on episode four, and I became once like, “Oh, launch on Cassie. It’s going to be Cassie’s myth.” All of that ended up in episode three, which grew to turn out to be an episode about Sean’s relationship with females. That became once among the subject issues of episode three.

I bear in mind episode four, we had been building a myth. If he will get charged with racketeering, that’s existence in penal advanced. And as we had been having a glance thru all this photos, we’re seeing and we’re speaking to all these of us, we’re seeing your full threads that demonstrate the total locations that will almost certainly be thought to be racketeering to a jury and all of that area matter. So there’s just like the parable that plan, but when he’s learned no longer guilty of a racketeering payment, that shifts how we are telling our myth in direction of the stop.

Clearly, we pivot, and we describe the parable that happened. Sean is a master at getting a 2nd chance on these trials. Throughout the sequence, these patterns saved emerging till the very stop. After which this trial, in a technique, confirmed these patterns. But yeah, I do know that became once one thing that became once at all times a battle, the stop of episode three, going into episode four, where is this going to scuttle?

How is it going to trade? And we moral roughly flowed. Thank God for Benji coming in, helping at the very stop, due to we had been like working out of time. We had barely about a editors, and Benji became once one of them.

I bear in mind how briskly Benji roughly moral jumped in, flew with the minimize, and right now started helping us form episode four.

Charles Divak: When the verdict got right here down in July, we had been all pretty shocked, as became once the public. It became once pretty horny.

We’re all roughly speaking collectively. And it’s like: What does this indicate? What does this indicate now? And it became once pretty obtrusive that the demonstrate without warning had a lot extra weight, that it became once roughly on us now to convey the parable because it certainly happened.

Due to, according to what happened within the trial, it became once moral a slap on the wrist. And in issue that became once indubitably the burden. It grew to turn out to be some distance extra crucial to the sequence. We needed to certainly, certainly specialize in what we considerable to affirm. What it’ll affirm about Sean and to certainly push forward the victim’s voices to demonstrate the unswerving image of who this guy is.

Evan Luminous: There’s additionally roughly an pleasure whereas you occur to’re working on one thing, and you don’t know how it’s going to full, and the parable is level-headed evolving. I indicate, it might well within the extinguish fetch your job a miniature bit bit extra difficult due to things shift round loads. And in our case the verdict roughly set us all on upside down for a miniature bit bit.

But I mediate that that you would be in a position to well also certainly feel unswerving propulsion as a crew whereas you occur to’re driving down the parable motorway and you don’t know where your remaining destination is. It additionally enables you to modify on the flit. When the verdict got right here out, all of a unexpected, interviewing jurors grew to turn out to be certainly, certainly crucial.

I indicate, that presumably would had been crucial anyway. But due to those of us got right here to a name that most of us didn’t glance coming, it’s like, okay, neatly, now now we procure got to fetch the jurors. After which it fully adjustments the plan the fourth episode functions. I’ve performed a model of projects where the parable became once level-headed developing. And it’s roughly fun. Albeit, you appreciate, fear-filled and annoying in most cases.

We thank Jack Gravina, Charles Divak, Benji Kast, and Evan Luminous for his or her time. And we wish them the handiest of luck at the Eddie Awards for the nomination for Simplest Edited Documentary.

Sean Combs: The Reckoning is now streaming on Netflix.