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When Hollywood writers went on strike this week, a number of shows already in production had to make some changes to their production pipelines. One affected show is Amazon Studios’ The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. According to Variety’s sources, production on Season 2–which is currently filming in the UK–will continue, albeit without anyone responsible for writing being on set.
This affects executive producers and showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, as well as any other writer-producers, Variety reported. These people are “barred” from taking part in any writing or making creative decisions on set for as long as the WGA strike continues, the report said.
Variety went on to report that non-writing executive producers on The Rings of Power, as well as directors and crew who do not have writing responsibilities, will now overseeing production.
The report went on to say that Payne and McKay had been preparing for a strike in an effort to “make their absence from the show as seamless as possible.”
Hollywood writers are now on strike with no timetable for when they could return to work. Another element here is that there is a June 30 contract deadline for SAG-AFTRA and DGA actors. So if a contract with actors cannot be met by then, productions might have to shut down completely.
Head to Variety to get the full story.
This is the first writers’ strike since 2007-2008. Writers have been picketing outside major studio lots in California for companies like Disney and WB Discovery. The writers are seeking higher pay, better residuals, minimum staffing requirements, and for safeguards to be put in place regarding the use of artificial intelligence for script writing.
Go to The Associated Press to see a rundown of what the writers are asking for in the strike.
