Cuddling up on the couch to binge watch the latest season of your favorite show or the newest movie on a streaming device has always been a weekend ritual for many students, but with the recent writer and actors strike, most people’s movie nights and watch parties might just have to wait.
On July 14, 2023 the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) announced that they were going on strike. With writers and actors asking for general wage increase, protection against the use of actor images through artificial intelligence, boost in compensation for successful streaming programs and improvement in health and retirement benefits, the big production companies have yet to apply the needs demanded.
“These writers, who are the foundation of our entertainment industry, should definitely be getting paid as much as the actors portraying the characters that the writers make,” sophomore Charles Railsback said.
Due to the low wages that writers are getting paid and the actors supporting these writers going on strike, shows including “Stranger Things”, “The Summer I Turned Pretty”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Cobra Kai” and “The Last Of Us”, along with hundreds of other shows, have halted production.
“Stranger Things is one show that is really painful to hear about. The wait for the next season was supposed to be two years at the very latest and now we could be looking at a release date of 2026,” junior Riley Rogers said. “By the time it gets here, it will have been so long since we have all watched the show, and I think it will bring us some nostalgia and much needed closure.”
Many fans of different shows and movies are disappointed because of the wait for new releases and seasons, but ultimately the writers and actors have garnered overwhelming support. The anticipation revealed by the viewers, shows the support of the strike and the shows even through this entertainment drought.
“I know that many Marvel titles are being pushed back, and not only that but filming for the sequel to “The Batman” is being postponed,” Railsback said. “I understand why the writers are going on strike and am taking sides with these writers.”
Becoming the second longest strike in history with over 160,000 actors in the Screen Actors Guild striking, production companies are beginning to see the resilience of writers and actors. Most of the postponed shows won’t start production until the SAG-AFTRA strike is over, meaning from that point it might take movies and shows months to start airing.
“Bottom line is that writers should be paid and treated fairly and I don’t think it should be too hard to do so,” Rogers said. “The very fact that there is a strike that has been going on this long should tell us that a change needs to be made. So why not make it?”
