The Writers’ Strike Is Over: What That Means for The Last of Us, Stranger Things, and More

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Well, it’s official: the most recent writers’ strike is over. After reaching a tentative deal with Hollywood’s studios, the leadership of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) unanimously voted to accept a new three-year contract, which includes major gains in the areas of artificial intelligence, streaming data transparency, and minimum room sizes.

While the WGA’s membership still needs to vote to accept the contract, the guild’s leadership officially ended the work stoppage on Wednesday, giving writers full permission to leave the picket lines and head back to work after 148 days. That means that the development that was halted all the way back in May can now continue – but there’s a slight catch.

Hollywood’s actors remain on strike. Although they’re set to resume negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Hollywood’s studios, next week, we have no idea if that will lead to the end of that media work stoppage. So what this means is that, while the work of writing can be done – from early development to script rewrites – filming that involves actual actors (which is, uh, most of it) cannot.

So what does that mean for you, who’s just waiting for the final season of Stranger Things or Superman: Legacy? Let’s break it all down as best we can as the actors’ strike continues, and we’ll update as we know more as well.

What can immediately head back to air

In the very short term, the major late-night shows are an obvious thing to point to. As they were impacted the most immediately when the strike was called, with writers working daily to keep up with current events in time for the episode’s evening airtimes, they’re also the first to bounce back.

Several late-night hosts, including Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Kimmel, all announced that they’re returning next Monday, Oct. 2, preparing to release their first non-rerun episodes in five months, while John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight will also return this Sunday.

The five hosts, who launched a podcast together in August in benefit of the Hollywood strikes, announced the news in an enthusiastic joint statement.

A note from @StephenAtHome @JimmyFallon @JimmyKimmel @SethMeyers & @IamJohnOliver! ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/wsCde7DDf7

— Strike Force Five (@StrikeForceFive) September 27, 2023

Comedy Central’s The Daily Show will return on Oct. 16 with guest hosts until a new permanent host is found following Trevor Noah’s exit.

Bill Mader, meanwhile – who courted quite a bit of controversy when he said he would return while the writers’ strike was still happening – will have a new episode this Friday, he announced. Speaking of controversy, Drew Barrymore garnered a lot of backlash for also saying her show would return amid the writers’ strike, and Variety reports that it will also return next month, as will The Talk and The Jennifer Hudson Show, per Deadline.

Okay, but when am I getting The Last of Us Season 2?

As far as the biggest scripted series, those can now continue with development – with the aforementioned caveat of not being able to continue filming that would involve actors. The Last of Us’ second season, for example, was still deep into the writing process when the strike was called in May, and showrunner Craig Mazin has been open about his eagerness to return to the scripts. In July, he said he was keen to keep Season 2 on track for a 2025 release even amid the strikes.

Sure enough, he posted on Threads shortly before the strike lifted that the team will “spring into action” as soon as they’re given the go-ahead (though, taking care to clarify that “action” means simply “writing” for now).

Sure enough, Variety reports that HBO will focus on completing new seasons of The Last of Us, Euphoria, and The White Lotus in 2024, rather than starting up new projects.

Meanwhile, IGN has learned that House of the Dragon Season 2 completed filming amid the strikes, which was possible because the scripts were complete prior to the writers’ strike and most of the British cast aren’t represented by the American guild SAG-AFTRA. Per Variety, they’re targeting a summer 2024 release date and keeping in mind a yet-to-be-ordered third season.

But just about equally as anticipated is the fifth and final season of Netflix’s mega-hit Stranger Things. There was speculation that Stranger Things was near the finish line writing-wise, with filming to begin in June, according to star David Harbour (Harbour would add in a more recent interview that he’s seen some of the scripts). Showrunners the Duffer brothers, however, were quick to come out after the WGA strike was called and point out that “writing does not stop when filming begins,” setting the record straight that they would not move into production amid the writers’ work stoppage.

Via a post on X/Twitter, however, the Stranger Things writers’ team confirmed that they’ve returned to work post-strike with a simple “we’re back.” They’ve also shared what are technically some “first looks” at Season 5 in the form of fairly silly pre-vis shots – which, despite being a little unserious, are still very cute.

Hope the studios make a fair deal with SAG soon or else season 5 is looking like this: pic.twitter.com/GC2ok142jJ

— stranger writers (@strangerwriters) September 28, 2023

Variety also reports that Stranger Things is top of mind for Netflix, needing to crank out Season 5 before the actors age too much to be believable high schoolers, in addition to the second season of their hit Wednesday.

As for Netflix’s well-received adaptation of One Piece, IGN has reached out for clarification, but we can safely assume that’s moving along in development for its recently announced second season. There’s been a little bit of conflicting information about where those scripts are currently – producers with Tomorrow Studios previously told Variety that the scripts are “ready” should the series be renewed, while One Piece creator/show executive producer Eiichiro Oda encouraged patience as it’ll “still take awhile to get the scripts ready.” Still, there’s little doubt Netflix will want to get moving, given its continually solid viewership numbers.

Over on Prime Video, Variety reported that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power finished filming before the SAG-AFTRA strike was called, so that should be mostly unaffected. We’re still waiting for an update on The Boys Season 4, however; despite many of the actors having finished filming pre-strikes, showrunner Eric Kripke said Season 4’s release date “depends on how long the #WGA Strike goes.” When reached by IGN, Prime Video clarified that they have “nothing to share at this time” on Season 4, but we wouldn’t be surprised if an update came soon.

On the film side, there are countless big upcoming movies that can now continue with development. Variety reports that Paramount is “hoping” to have writers fine-tuning scripts for the planned Star Trek reboot and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, while Universal is looking for a new draft of Fast X: Part 2, and Warner Bros. is looking toward Matt Reeves to deliver his The Batman sequel. Deadline, meanwhile, reports that Marvel Studios is in early development on a new X-Men movie, eyeing to set up talks to hire a screenwriter soon.

Speaking of Disney, there were a lot of movies that were in development that had to be halted amid both strikes. In June, Disney announced a massive reshuffling of its release calendar, pushing back Marvel movies Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, Blade, and Fantastic Four. Those movies that were delayed due to needed work on scripts, like Blade, can now continue.

The many Star Wars projects in development, too, can now move forward in writing, including Lando (which is now being developed as a movie instead of a TV show) and the three new films that were announced at Star Wars Celebration. A source told IGN back when the writers’ strike was announced that Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte was scheduled to finish filming in May, so should be largely unimpacted. But Andor – along with many other productions that were filming amid the writers’ strike – basically remains unchanged while the actors remain on strike.

What about productions that had already finished writing, but not filming?

The previously mentioned Andor was just a couple of weeks away from finishing production on Season 2 before they had to halt for the SAG-AFTRA strike, per Deadline, so that likely remains on ice until that strike is resolved. And that’s the case for plenty of other films and TV shows.

Looking at James Gunn and Peter Safran’s upcoming reboot of the DCU, Gunn had already completed the script for Superman: Legacy, and cast his Superman and Lois Lane just before the actors’ announced their strikes. It’s likely that he’ll work on putting finishing touches on the script while he awaits the go-ahead to move into production. IGN has learned that WB has no current plans to alter the previously announced roadmap for the first phase of the revamp, titled Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters, barring necessitated delays from the ongoing actors’ strikes.

Shows like Daredevil: Born Again and DC’s Max series The Penguin were both put on hold for the duration of the writers’ strike, despite being in the thick of filming. Since they obviously need their actors to film, those series with both likely remain paused.

And then there are movies like Deadpool 3, which has been alllll over the place with both big Hollywood strikes. Deadpool 3 continued filming amid the writers’ strike, having completed scripts, but was forced to halt when the actors’ strike was called. Producer Shawn Levy recently told Deadline that they were about halfway through filming before the actors’ strike was called.

As for other movies that were delayed during the SAG-AFTRA strike, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse was put on hold indefinitely in July, as the cast couldn’t finish recording their dialogue before the work stoppage in time to make its previously scheduled March 29, 2024. That remains on hold, although any tweaks that need to be made on the script can now be worked on.

Other movies that were in the thick of filming but had to stop amid the actors’ strike including Gladiator 2, Mortal Kombat 2 (per Variety), Wicked (per Broadway World), Mission: Impossible 8, Venom 3 (per THR), and Beetlejuice 2 (per Variety). Those movies are still paused.

There were also movies that completed writing and filming but were delayed due to the studio wanting to use actors on the press tour, like Kraven the Hunter (per Variety) and Dune: Part II. Those, too, remain unchanged.

We know that’s a lot to dissect, but hopefully that sheds some light on when all your most anticipated movies and TV shows are coming back. In the meantime, brush up on where the strikes are now with our chat with members of SAG-AFTRA about the potential video game strike.

Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.