Filming on the second season of House of the Dragon continues. It’s been going on for a while now, since before the Writers Guild of America called a strike and Hollywood screenwriters took to the picket lines to demand better compensation from the studios for their work, among other things.
The strike has affected shows in a variety of ways. Some, like Stranger Things and The Mandalorian, have put off filming for their new seasons until the strike is resolved; you can’t shoot an episode of television without a script, after all. House of the Dragon was in a trickier position. Scripts for the second season were already completed and cameras already rolling when the strike was called. But the writers job doesn’t end when the scripts is finished. Writers will often be on set for filming, writing new scenes as needed or changing things here and there. In the first season of House of the Dragon, parts of this scene between Alicent and Aegon were written in the moment, which might have happened if the writer wasn’t around:
So it could hurt the second season of House of the Dragon to film without writers…but there are writers on set. New photos reveal that House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal, who wrote three episodes of season 1, is in the Spanish city of Cáceres, where the show has been shooting for a few days.
Ryan Condal has arrived on set and we just ran into him in the streets of Cáceres 🐉 #Caceres #HouseoftheDragon @LaCittadellaEgg @girlwithoneeye7 pic.twitter.com/EferlNd2Za
— federica 🏳️🌈 (on hiatus) (@ladymultifandom) May 22, 2023
Producer Sara Hess, who wrote two episodes of season 1, is also present.
House of the Dragon writer/producers Ryan Condal and Sara Hess on set despite writers strike
This is a tricky situation. The idea is that both Condal and Hess are on set not as writers, but as producers and showrunners. That wouldn’t break the strike.
…buuuut some writers would say that it’s impossible to undertake showrunning or producing duties without also doing some writing. It’s hard to tell where the one set of duties ends and the other begins. If you’re there for the rehearsal of a scene and decide that a character needs to say something new in order to get across some piece of information, are you allowed to suggest it? What if you make it so the suggestion comes from the actor or the director, who aren’t bound by the rules of the strike? Things get tricky.
There are other showrunners and producers who have opted not to be on set while their shows are being filmed; for instance, Tony Gilroy is not working at all on the second season of Star Wars: Andor, even though he could theoretically separate his writing duties from his producing/showrunning duties.
We should also mention that HBO sent out a letter to writer/showrunners and writer/producers telling them to show up to work to carry out their non-writing duties, and that if they didn’t, “HBO/HBO Max will not be obliged to continue your salary.” The letter even says that if the strike interrupts production, the studio will not be obliged to pay “the salary of the cast and crew.”
So Condal and Hess face a situation where if they show up to work, they could be accused of breaking the strike. But if they don’t show up to work, they could risk their livelihoods and even the livelihoods of their cast and crew. It’s a very dicey situation. I hope things get resolved soon, both because I want the writers to get compensated fairly and because I can’t imagine this acrimony is going to be good for shows like House of the Dragon.
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