The writers of the United States now do not write even a comma. In the locations of the main series, the production teams find pickets that make it difficult to enter the filming. There are actors who refuse to leave the dressing rooms in solidarity with the authors of the dialogues they must interpret and there are creative bosses who, by not working, are losing their lucrative agreements with the platforms. How is the writers' strike affecting our favorite series, considering that it is speculated that it could last more than four months?
Fans of Charlie Cox's Daredevil are in luck because, when Disney regained the rights to the character from Marvel, he chose to convince the actor to play him again after passing through Netflix. And, when they have been shooting for two of the eight months planned, the series encounters production stoppages caused by the writers. On Monday they couldn't shoot anything at all and it remains to be seen if the Marvel series will be able to get back to normal after the picket line in front of their set.
And, in the case of Dan Erickson's psychological thriller, the team also refused to work this Monday thanks to the demands on the street. It will be necessary to see if it is a temporary circumstance or if it will be interrupted permanently: according to reports by the US media, there have been problems in the Severance writers' room, with Apple aware that the scripts for the new episodes were not up to the task. from the first season, which allowed them to compete at the Emmys.
Due to the personal and artistic discrepancies between Dan Erickson, the creator, and Mark Friedman, the other creative person, the technological giant brought Beau Willimon to the team to prepare the third season and retouch the second. Can Severance, therefore, afford to shoot the second season without tweaking a comma, considering that Willimon joined the project this spring?
"Writing doesn't end when filming begins," the Duffers reported from the Stranger Things writers' account. “While we are excited to begin production with our incredible cast and crew, it is not possible during this strike. We hope that a fair agreement will be reached soon so that we can get back to work. Until then, over and out”, they argued.
So while anticipation for the final season of Stranger Things is high among fans, it's clear to fans that they can't work without the ability to tweak their copy mid-production. And, considering that the series was about to start filming, Eleven and company will have to wait to face the Upside Down.
“The strike is underway,” reported G.R.R. Martin on his blog, and this means that the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight writers' room has been dissolved until the WGA Writers Guild reaches a satisfactory agreement with the studios. "The Guild has negotiated until the deadline of May 1 but it takes two to tango," said the author of the Game of Thrones universe, who is in favor of the strike. It remains to be seen if this affects his agreement with HBO and Warner Bros. considering that he is not working on the projects as stipulated in his contract.
The prequel will take as reference the tales of Dunk and Egg, some important characters in the history of Westeros: Dunk ended up being the Lord Commander of the Royal Guard while Egg came to occupy the Iron Throne with the name of Aegon V, from the Targaryen dynasty, roughly a century before Daenerys was crowned.
La casa del dragón continues filming as planned, taking advantage of the fact that the scripts for the second season had been finalized. Of course, Ryan Condal, who acts as showrunner, will not be able to make any changes to the text and will only be able to participate in the production as executive producer.
In the same situation is The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which has finished the scripts for the second season and continues filming as normal... without the creators J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, who are not participating having actively joined the strike. According to reports by media such as Variety, knowing that a strike was coming, they tried to leave everything well tied up so that his absence was as little noticeable as possible. Both productions are currently located in the UK.
The writers' room had uploaded a photo on social networks to tell how excited they were about the final season. Three days later, the strike was declared and, therefore, the project was in a deadlock pending an agreement in the industry. “We hate to strike, but if we have to strike, we do it well. Pencils downstairs in the Cobra Kai writers room. No scriptwriters on set. These are not fun times but they are unfortunately necessary," explained Jon Hurwitz, showrunner.
Straddling comedy, thriller and horror, Yellowjackets' conceptual madness is lucky it filmed its second season before the strike. The broadcast of the series will not be affected. Of course, the scriptwriters room had only been working for a single day when the WGA informed them that it was time to stop writing: the third season, confirmed, has not been written and it is not known when it will be written.
The Emmy winner for Comedy Writing and Directing in 2021 and for Best Actress for Jean Smart in both 2021 and 2022 was producing the third season when the team decided to stop. It's not a question of pickets, but a comedy needs to have scriptwriters on set, to finish off the gags on the fly depending on what works and what doesn't when the actors and the director start filming the scenes.
Finally, if the strike lasts four months, the consequences will be foreseeable for free-to-air television in the United States: the channels will have to delay the release dates of series such as Grey's Anatomy, Law and Order, Law and Order: Victims Unit specials, Abbott College, SWAT, Blue bloods, Los Conners, Ghosts, etc. And it is that, after having now finished their respective seasons, they have hardly had time to work on the scripts that must be shot by the beginning of October and the season arcs.
