HBO Exec Updates Status of ‘House of the Dragon,’ ‘The Last of Us,’ ‘White Lotus,’ More Amidst Writers’ Strike
The Writers Guild of America put its pencils — or more realistically, laptops — down on May 1, starting a strike that continues to keep some studio lots empty. Writers are demanding new pay and residual structures, arguing that streaming has changed everything about the way they’re compensated in the past 10-15 years.
Warner Bros. Discovery made few friends among the writing community last year when it began purging content from its streaming platform HBO Max and even shutting down projects that were already started or nearing completion. But those days are over, or so the company says, and WBD’s newly-launched streaming platform Max will continue to be a repository for the prestige TV HBO has become best-known for.
HBO’s head of drama series Francesca Orsi sat down with Deadline for a wide-ranging interview, and gave some key updates for fans wondering if their favorite shows will be affected by the WGA strike. It was a mixed bag of news, as some shows have been unaffected, while others have been forced to halt production.
“While everything at this moment is pencils down, I’m hopeful that we can come to terms [with the writers] sooner than later,” Orsi told Deadline. “Otherwise we will have to assess what is the end of the [2024] schedule, what are the shows that are going to be delivered for 2025. At this point, those shows that I’m looking to air wouldn’t necessarily be ready if this strike lasts six to nine months. So yes, that’s a big question for us, but I think we’ll cross that road once we come to it.”
First the good news: so far, the strike has not affected the production schedule of “House of the Dragon,” the “Game of Thrones” spinoff that aired its first season in 2022. Shooting is still underway in the United Kingdom, which is possible because all eight scripts for Season 2 had already been written before the strike commenced. If rewrites and reshoots are necessary, they will have to wait until the work stoppage is over.
Other “GoT” spinoffs, such as “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight” and the Jon Snow series that has not yet been officially greenlit, are on pause thanks to the strike. These series were in various, but early stages of development, and now must wait for their writers to agree to leave the picket line and head back into writing rooms.
Orsi’s updates were less encouraging for fans of “The White Lotus” and “The Last of Us.”
“We were looking at ‘The Last Of Us’ for some time in 2025,” she said. “And ‘The White Lotus’ was ideally looking to go in 2024 but there’s some question about timing of the strike.”
Orsi also pointed to “Euphoria” as a series that could be affected by the WGA walkout. Show creator Sam Levinson is also working on “The Idol” for HBO, which lengthened the amount of time fans had to wait between Season 2 and Season 3 of “Euphoria.” Adding show star Zendaya’s packed schedule and now a writers’ strike into the equation, fans shouldn’t expect to see the third season of “Euphoria” until at least 2025.
It’s been hard to avoid the topic of “Succession” lately, as the highly popular award-winning drama series will air its final episode on Sunday, May 28. Orsi shot down the idea of a potential fifth season, noting that show creator Jesse Armstrong has a plan for the show’s end and HBO is satisfied with that decision. She was less committed to a firm answer on whether the show would generate any spinoffs, but her words cast doubt on rumors that such series will come into existence.
“I’ll never say never but my instinct and based on a number of conversations about the evolution of ‘Succession’ and these characters, at this stage, there is no intention of spinning any one character off,” Orsi explained. “Jesse, should he do a series again, I think it will be entirely original. Whether it’s based on IP or not, I’m not sure, but it will be a new show, a new idea entirely.”
It’s hard to know when the writers’ strike will end. The ball is mainly in the court of studios, who will almost certainly offer a pay increase of some kind in the near future, depending on how much pressure is exerted on them. Orsi says HBO has “hundreds” of scripts to work through for the time being, but a prolonged strike could put shows that have big fan followings on ice until it is resolved.
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