Marvel’s latest “Deadpool” film and the newest season of Netflix’s ultra popular “Outer Banks” series are the latest among a slew of movies and TV shows that have halted production as part of Hollywood’s mega-strike.
Just two days after Blake Lively took her three children to visit Ryan Reynolds donning a superhero costume on the “Deadpool 3” set in England, production has ceased.
Variety confirmed on Friday that Reynolds won’t be tapping into his superhuman strength to spar off the bad guys anytime soon.
On Thursday, “Outer Banks” stopped filming its fourth season in Charleston, SC due to the nationwide writers strike, where writers are no longer the only ones picketing against studies, networks and streaming platforms, according to The Post and Courier.
The big studios, meanwhile, are reportedly digging in too. A studio executive told Deadline that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) will “allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.”
The studios and the AMPTP — which represents streamers Disney, Netflix, and Amazon, among others — believe that by October, most writers will be running out of money after five months on the picket lines and no work, the outlet reported.
“Not Halloween precisely, but late October, for sure, is the intention,” a top-tier producer close to AMPTP said, according to Deadline.
By that time, studios and streamers believe they’ll be able to close the deal they want as cash-strapped workers will be desperate to begin getting paychecks again.
According to IMBD, “Superman: Legacy,” “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” and the third installment of “Sonic the Hedgehog” are highly-anticipated films in pre-production.
Fans may also have to wait longer for “Ghostbusters 4,” “Mufasa: The Lion King,” “Avatar 3 and 4,” Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” sequel and the film adaptation of the musical “Wicked.”
In addition, upcoming blockbusters “Dune: Part Two,” “Bob Marley: One Love” and “Wonka” are in post-production, according to the site.
It’s unclear how any of these films will be impacted by the strike, which officially began on May 2 when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced that its 11,500 screenwriter members in California, New York and other cities will refuse to work after AMPTP and studios failed to agree on a new three-year contract.
Late-night TV shows were immediately halted, including Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show,” “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”
Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” was also put on a hiatus, according to Variety.
The teams behind long-running animated sitcoms “Family Guy” and “American Dad” also walked off the job in support of the strike, the outlet reported.
Also affected: scripting for Netflix’s eighth and final season of “Big Mouth” and Season 6 of “Cobra Kai, as well as pre-production for Marvel’s vampire reboot, “Blade,” and “Stranger Things.”
Drew Barrymore stood in solidarity with WAG when she dropped out of hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards that aired in early May, and already reportedly agreed to return to host the 2024 iteration of the awards show.
“Jeopardy!” host Mayim Bialik also left her post as the game show’s host in May in support of the strike, and the show continued filming the its 39th season without her.
Ken Jennings took over hosting duties for the remainder of the season, which finished filming on May 19.
Ahead of SAG-AFTRA’s strike announcement on Thursday, ABC set its fall programming schedule, and it showed that time slots normally occupied by new episodes of its scripted hits — such as “Abbott Elementary” — were replaced by unscripted shows and reruns.
Fox’s upcoming lineup showed a similar trend, with an animation block consisting of the only scripted television the network plans to run this fall.
As of 12 a.m. on Friday, 160,000 more Hollywood workers represented by the largest entertainment union — Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (SAG-AFTRA) — joined the picket line, demanding higher-paying contracts that better protect workers in the entertainment industry from changes brought on by streaming and emerging tech.
Thankfully for cinemas, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” have already been complete and are expected to rake in millions of dollars when they hit the box office simultaneously on July 21.
The premiere for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming three-hour, R-rated biographical thriller took place on Thursday, and its star-studded cast — which includes Cillian Murphy, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt and Matt Damon — was in attendance.
Yet shortly after SAG-AFTRA announced its decision to join in on WGA’s strike, the cast left the event.
“Unfortunately they’re off to write their picket signs for what we believe to be an imminent strike by SAG,” Nolan said at the UK premiere, according to Forbes.
The films could be movie theaters’ final money-makers for a while.
The industry hasn’t seen this type of shutdown since COVID, and a strike hasn’t happened at this scale since the last WGA strike 15 years ago.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
