The 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America are now on strike, having been unable to reach an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers. The sticking points arise from new conditions that have come from the age of streaming television; with shorter seasons, lower residual payments, poor job security, and fears over jobs being eaten up by AI all at the forefront of the arguments.
Negotiations had been ongoing up until the weekend, though have now failed, as the union leadership has stated.
“Though we negotiated intent on making a fair deal … the studios’ responses to our proposals have been wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing. They have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership.”
And so, as of 3am EDT on Tuesday, the strike is on. Many fear a repeat of the 100-day strike in 2007/8, which hit television and movies hard. Notably affected were late-night talk shows, soap operas and ongoing TV shows, though even blockbuster productions like the Bond movie Quantum of Solace were affected, with Daniel Craig famously having to step in to finish the script himself.
“On ‘Quantum,’ we were f**ked. We had the bare bones of a script and then there was a writers’ strike and there was nothing we could do. We couldn’t employ a writer to finish it. I say to myself, ‘Never again,’ but who knows? There was me trying to rewrite scenes – and a writer I am not.’”
The longer the strike goes on the more the entertainment industry will be affected, so how will this hit the juggernaut that is Marvel Studios?
The Good News
The silver lining on this is that this strike hasn’t come out of the blue. The entertainment industry has known for months that talks might break down, and Marvel Studios will have been making sure that as many upcoming scripts as possible will be complete as of this weekend.
Upcoming Disney Plus shows like Secret Invasion, Loki season 2, Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Echo, Ironheart, Marvel Zombies, What If…? season 2, and Daredevil: Born Again are either already shooting or in post-production. The situation does limit Marvel’s options if it decides any of these need reshoots, though even if this strike lasts as long as the 07/08 one, the studio should be able to resume work without any substantial delays.
Over on the big screen, The Marvels is almost certainly already complete as it was originally planned for the summer, so that’s likely having the finishing touches to VFX and some minor editing tweaks before its release in November. But other MCU movies might not have such a rosy future.
The Bad News
Many upcoming Phase Five movies might be sailing into choppy waters. Captain America: New World Order is currently filming in Atlanta and is expected to wrap in late June. This means the overall script is locked in, but now Marvel doesn’t have the option of on-set rewrites if a scene isn’t working out as planned. As proven by Quantum of Solace, it’s possible for non-WGA directors and actors to rework scenes themselves, although results famously vary when non-professional writers are involved.
Further out, we smell trouble. Thunderbolts is scheduled to begin filming in June, with Beef creator Lee Sung Jin brought on in March to rewrite Eric Pearson’s script. Jin may have already turned in a draft by now, but the production may be delayed if Marvel Studios still aren’t happy with what it’s got.
The now notoriously troubled Blade may have also hit another roadblock. This has seen a series of major rewrites and screenwriters, with the most recent addition True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto, who was confirmed as rewriting the script just last week.
It’s unlikely Pizzolatto has had the chance to complete any substantial work in such a short time, and with filming scheduled to begin later this month, production will either have to be pushed back yet again or begin working with the rejected drafts already in place, coupled with what Pizzolatto has managed to turn in.
Deadpool 3 is also about to go before the cameras in London, with the script having to be completely rewritten in 2022 to accommodate the surprise addition of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. We had thought that the fact that Ryan Reynolds himself has a co-writing credit meant he could help steer the movie, though it turns out he is a WGA member and cannot.
Further into the future, we have Josh Friedman working on the Fantastic Four script, Jeff Loveness tackling Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and Michael Waldron on Avengers: Secret Wars. None of these movies will begin shooting earlier than January 2024, though the loss of time in the screenwriting stage now could impact them down the line.
Will we see delays?
Based on all this, we wouldn’t be surprised if many of the Phase Five and Phase Six movies miss their announced release dates. We suspect Thunderbolts and Blade are the most likely candidates to be delayed, though the carefully choreographed Marvel Studios release schedule means those movies slipping will have further impacts down the line. (as of 6 May 2023 Blade has indeed been delayed).
Naturally, all of this depends on how long the strike will last. If the WGA and studios remain at loggerheads and we see a repeat of the 07/08 strike, there’s going to be trouble ahead for Marvel Studios as it tries its best to work around months of lost time. More optimistically we suspect that the bad memory of the last strike will bring major studios to the table sooner than before, particularly as Disney and Marvel Studios have only just recovered from the long production nightmare caused by the COVID pandemic.
Either way, the writers on strike deserve our support, as these largely unsung heroes are responsible for the epic storytelling that’s made the MCU the global sensation it is today. Here’s hoping they come out on top.