The Boys stars hit the picket line in support of actors strike

Last week, negotiations broke down between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents big Hollywood studios like Netflix, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery. As a result, we’re now into our first week where both the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) are on strike, demanding better job security and pay, protections against AI in the workplace, and other concessions to ensure the future of the acting and screenwriting professions in the streaming age. This is the first time that both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA have been on strike together since 1960, which makes it a pretty big deal.

One side effect of the double strike is that plenty of actors who are familiar to viewers at home are now cropping up on the picket lines. For example, yesterday Jack Quaid, who plays Hughie on Prime Video’s The Boys, shared on social media that he was picketing outside Amazon with some of his costars:

“Striking outside Amazon in NYC with THE GIRLS,” Quaid wrote on Instagram and Twitter, captioning a picture of him and fellow The Boys stars Aya Cash (Stormfront), Colby Minifie (Ashley Barrett), and Claudia Doumit (Victoria Neuman) armed with picketing signs. The Boys is all about a corrupt corporation that has built a rotten industrial complex around superheroes, so it’s pretty meta to see actors from the show camped out in front of an enormous corporation like Amazon to demand better conditions for creative workers.

The Boys season 4 is on hold due to the writers strike

Quaid also shared a slightly more detailed update the preceding weekend, addressing the fact that right now actors cannot promote their upcoming or previously released works. “I can’t promote any of my projects until SAG-AFTRA gets a fair deal, so strap in for a lot of [thumbs up emoji] and strike memes for the foreseeable future,” he wrote.

The Boys is one of Prime Video’s biggest series. It wrapped production on its fourth season in April, but creator Eric Kripke has since confirmed that post-production on the series is on hold due to the writers strike. So that’s one show we know for certain we won’t see new episodes of until the AMPTP comes back to the table to end the strikes.

The Boys spinoff Gen V is still expected to air sometime this year. However, considering that series stars like Patrick Schwarzennegar have also been spotted on the picket line in Los Angeles, don’t expect to be see the actors out promoting it. Here’s hoping the strikes have reached an equitable conclusion by then.

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h/t Entertainment Weekly