Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
The moment Hollywood’s biggest studios have been dreading (while not doing anything about it) is finally here—again. After failing to reach a new contract agreement that would improve pay for thousands of TV and film writers negatively impacted by streaming, the Writers Guild of America is set to go on strike.
The WGA’s previous contract expired at 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday, which means the union could formally announce a walkout at any time. This watershed event comes just a day after International Workers’ Day and a few hours after Hollywood elite gathered for the bougiest event of the year.
Despite the massive impact a strike will have on the year’s television output—and possibly some movie releases—this announcement is not particularly shocking. Writers, networks and studios have been anticipating a potential walkout since February if they couldn’t reach a fair deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. (AMPTP represents studios, production companies and streaming services.) And in March, the WGA released a report titled “Writers Are Not Keeping Up,” outlining the ways writers’ salaries have decreased in the wake of streaming.