Amazon Prime’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” will continue to shoot its second season while the Writers Guild of America (WGA) mounts an industry-wide strike. The series was only set to shoot for 19 more days. But per strike rules, the crew must do so without creators/writers/executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay.
Since Payne, McKay, and any other writer-producers cannot participate in any writing-based duties while the strike is still going on. Even though the scripts are already written, this rule also includes any on-set creative decisions. For the time being, non-writing executive producers, directors (Charlotte Brändström, Sanaa Hamri, and Louise Hooper), and crew are overseeing “The Rings of Power”’s production.
The U.K.-based shoot has already been filming multiple units, including night shoots. This seems in line with the pace they’ve been shooting at since production began on October 3rd, 2022. It also seems that Payne and McKay saw this coming and planned ahead with the production team. In an effort to make the transition as seamless as possible. So hopefully everyone is on the same page for the last few weeks of shooting.
The other big concern for current productions is the upcoming contract deadline for The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and Directors Guild of America (DGA). If those guilds fail to reach a new contract agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), actors and directors could also go on strike. The WGA strike has already put a huge crunch on the entertainment industry. Having the SAG-AFTRA and DGA strike as well would put a grinding halt to almost everything in filmed entertainment.
We’ll keep you posted on updates about “The Rings of Power” and the WGA strike as they develop. You can catch the first season of the series exclusively on Prime Video. Season 2 is expected to premiere some time next year. Check out the season 1 trailer below:
