Unsurprisingly, the ongoing writers’ strikes helmed by the Writers Guild of America would affect shows in production. But some networks believe the show must go on, even without its writers. So don’t be shocked when Amazon Studios takes a page out of its own playbook and decides to continue filming season two of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power without any of its showrunners.
Variety reported that the show’s executive producers, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, along with the rest of the show’s writers-producers will not be on set during the strikes. According to the WGA’s rules, guild members are barred from “participating in any writing-based duties during production while the strike continues.” This includes making creative decisions on set. Taking over are the show’s non-writing producers, directors, and the remaining crew members that are not part of the Guild.
The Rings of Power only have 19 days of filming left, and it was revealed that both Payne and McKay have “planned in advance” with the production team just in case the strike went on. So fingers crossed the show is still in good hands, despite the absences of very important people on set.
The ongoing writers’ strike has put many shows to a halt due to guild members walking out to demand better pay and compensation. The strike was approved by the guild’s Board of Directors back late Monday after a deal between the guild and various networks and streaming studios wasn’t made. It’s currently unknown how long the strike would last, but the previous one, which was in 2007 lasted for 100 days.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is Amazon’s most expensive TV series, costing the studio nearly $1 billion to produce and earn the distribution rights. Season 2’s release is still unknown, but all of season one is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
