Marvel Is Being Taken Down Thanks To One Powerful Group
Reportedly, the WGA is sending small, two-person picket lines to shut down production on Marvel shows.
Marvel fans are constantly arguing over who is the strongest entity in the MCU. Is it Thanos? Hulk? Thor? While all of those characters are immensely powerful, only one force has the power to stop the entire MCU in its tracks. The WGA writers strike.
Deadline reports that picket lines as small as just two people—the smallest number of picketers needed by law to form an official picket line—have been able to shut down productions from companies like Disney and Apple successfully. Projects like Marvel‘s Wonder Man are being forced to stop work because other unions like the Teamsters and IATSE refuse to cross picket lines in solidarity with the Writers Guild.
Wonder Man is a kind of Superman clone by the name of Simon Williams. A struggling actor, Williams, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, gains superpowers after being imbued with ionic energy. Shooting of the Marvel series was disrupted at least twice so far, once last week in Hollywood and then earlier this week in Studio City as a result of the writers’ strike.
Similar to what happened with the Marvel series, work on Apple+’s Loot, starring Maya Rudolph, was halted in Beverly Hills after Rudolph refused to cross the picket line. In addition to being a screenwriter whose credits include Maya & Marty and Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine, Rudolph is also married to writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson.
While Marvel and Apple no doubt consider these hindrances a defeat of sorts, there’s one group that counts the shut-downs as victories—the writers guild. “The message that we’re hearing loud and clear is all the other unions in town have our back,” said one guild member in regard to the numerous production shut-downs resulting from the writers strike. The WGA is hoping to expand the shut-downs beyond major acting hubs, LA and New York hoping that writers and allies will picket wherever they see television shows or movies being shot.
The anonymous guild member explained that the guild’s hope is that a married writing team from New Orleans or a couple of siblings who churn out screenplays in Georgia might take up the cause. “All it takes is two people with signs and it could potentially cost the studios thousands of dollars,” said the WGA member. Not that the writers strike is specifically trying to cost the studios money; rather, the strikers’ goal is to get the studios like Marvel and Netflix to come to the table and “negotiate in good faith.”
Unfortunately, the only way to do that is to hit the studios where it hurts—their wallets. Studios like Warner Bros. Discovery and Marvel’s parent company Disney are already suffering major losses in revenue, causing them to lay off employees and cancel projects. They don’t need the high cost associated with production delays added to their already substantial monetary burdens. It’s in everyone’s best interest to put an end to the writers strike before it causes any major delays.
The WGA is asking anyone with tips on out-of-the-way shooting locations to let them know. The hope is that if Hollywood runs out of places to shoot, they will have no choice but to give in to the guild’s demands. The quicker that happens, the quicker the writers strike ends, and fans can get all their sweet, sweet Marvel and DC content, as well as all the other franchises affected by shut-downs.
Not that anyone was clamoring for a Wonder Man show, but you get the idea.
