Writers picketed outside of Marvel Studios' Wonder Man set in an effort to shut down production for the WGA (Writers Guild of America) strike. A video shared by @OS2NOX on Twitter shows internet personality Hasan Piker and comedian and labor organizer Adam Conover outside of a shoot for Marvel's upcoming Disney+ series, Wonder Man. Piker explained that if there are "more than two people on a picket line," the Teamsters Union will not bring their trucks onto the set. "That's a huge deal for production," he said. "You got makeup trucks, you got trailers, you got a whole bunch of different things that need to come in for the set to work properly and the entire point of this is to stop that from happening."
Production on Wonder Man began towards the end of March and is reported to be one of Marvel Studios' longest shows on Disney+ with a 10-episode first season. The series does not yet have a release date. "If we shut this shoot down, Disney is going to lose a couple hundred thousand bucks on this location rental, on this equipment, on all the people, and that's gonna hit their balance sheet and it's gonna be like, 'oh, it's more expensive for us not to work with the writers guild than it is to actually negotiate,'" Connover said. Piker added, "The more of these we shut down the sooner the strike ends."
Late-night and weekly television shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Saturday Night Live (among many others) have been shut down due to the strike. However, it was confirmed by series creator Tony Gilroy that production on Andor, another Disney+ show, will remain unaffected as scripts for Season 2 were completed before the strike. Other high-profile shows like Prime Video's Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power are pushing forward with production on Season 2 without co-showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay on the set.
Beginning on May 2, this is the WGA's first strike in nearly 15 years following unsuccessful contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Among the WGA's concerns are the use of AI-generated content and a raise in compensation and residuals, which has become increasingly complicated due to streaming.
At the time of writing, the WGA and AMPTP have not scheduled further negotiations, though the AMPTP said in a statement that the studios "remain united in their desire to reach a deal that is mutually beneficial to writers and the health and longevity of the industry, and to avoid hardship to the thousands of employees who depend upon the industry for their livelihoods." The WGA has asked its members to cease writing, editing or pitching for the duration of the strike; the previous writers' strike took place for over 100 days between 2007 and 2008.
Source: Twitter