Here’s Why Hollywood Might Be on the Brink of a Major Writer’s Strike

The showrunner of Netflix’s Daredevil lashes out against studios for the recent trend of cancelations of the shows that have already been shot.

Daredevil was one of the most popular shows on Netflix, revolving around a blind Marvel superhero called Matt Murdock who also worked as a lawyer. However, the series was canceled when Disney and Netflix revoked the rights to Defenders from Netflix.

The cancelation of Defenders led to the consequent cancelation of shows such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage. But in defense of Marvel Studios and Netflix, these cancelations were planned, unlike the recent TV cancelations in Hollywood.

The early 2020s saw various shows getting canceled in Hollywood, even after the filming for the concerned shows was over. Shows continued to get canceled even in 2022, with HBO declaring that they would not produce scripted shows any longer.

Popular shows such as Love Life, Minx, and Infinity Train were canceled, without any explanation whatsoever. This left the cast and crew completely devastated, with little to no compensation for years of hard work.

In light of some major cancelations, Daredevil showrunner Steven DeKnight spoke up against this practice on his Twitter account. DeKnight demanded that the concerned parties pay huge financial compensation for the cancelation of shows after the cast and crew had finished filming for it.

Check out the tweet here –

Although DeKnight is talking about AMC’s 61st Street in the above tweet, 2022 has been a witness to Warner Bros. Discovery canceling shows left, right and center. After the merger between WB and Discovery, the company has been unfairly denying HBO Max the essentials and removing major shows without prior explanation.

Batgirl, one of the most anticipated DC projects, was canceled even after filming was over, and Infinity Train was taken off of HBO Max without any explanation or compensation to the animators.

Studios have been doing this as they feel they can save more money by canceling projects after bad test screenings. This will help them avoid facing another disaster like Morbius, which was trolled on the internet for days after release and was a big disappointment at the box office.

Warner Bros. Discovery managed to save $2 billion after canceling Batgirl and a few other projects. The studios have been working on the basis of a cost-benefit analysis. According to their analysis, if releasing certain projects isn’t worth it from a financial perspective, they will not see the light of day. As a showrunner and creator, this is what angers Steven DeKnight.

While it is true that the studios are benefitting monetarily from the cancelation of shows, it could also prove to be problematic for them in the long run. The Writers Guild of America has previously taken a stand against such unfair practices in the Hollywood industry back in 2007-08, which brought the entire entertainment industry to a standstill. There’s a high chance of history repeating itself, if studios continue to cancel shows without prior notice.

Showrunners have already begun to take a stand against such practices. So, Hollywood might be on the brink of another writer’s strike, which could harm the industry a great deal in the Golden Age of Television.

Studios such as Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery and AMC should definitely consider reviewing their cancelation policy as it is proving to be destructive to the careers of many writers. If not, the pen might prove to be mightier than the sword (or money, in this case).