The Writers Guild of America (WGA) officially announced a strike this week, stopping all work until an agreement can be reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on core contract issues like streaming residuals and artificial intelligence. This means that screenwriters have halted all writing, writers rooms, pitches, and on-set work, making it difficult for anything in the film and television industries to move forward. While some productions are attempting to trudge on with the scripts they already have, others are shutting down entirely until the strike is over.
The latest show to pull the plug on production is Hacks, the award-winning HBO Max comedy starring Jean Smart and Hanna Einbinder. According to Deadline, production on the show was halted this week and will stay on pause for the duration of the strike.
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Hacks is currently working on its third season, having started filming the new episodes late last year. There’s no telling how much of the season is left to film, but the production clearly isn’t comfortable moving forward without any of its writing team present.
Even when scripts are already completed, writers are still necessary to a production, especially when it comes to television. Things change over the course of a season, and adjustments often need to be made. Right now, with the ongoing strike, those changes can’t happen at all. What’s on the already-existing pages is what can be filmed, with the exception of some improvisation by actors.
Some shows are going to try to continue without writers present, which will likely prove to be a difficult challenge. HBO’s House of the Dragon isn’t planning to stop production, as all of the Season 2 scripts were written before filming began. Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is in a similar situation, though it’s a bit further along in production. That series will be attempting to finish up its production without its showrunners present.
When the strike went into effect on Monday, the first programs to be affected were the late night shows that film new episodes each weekday. They rely heavily on writers and all of the main late night shows quickly announced they wouldn’t be trying to film anything until the strike was over. Saturday Night Live opted to end its season three episodes early.
