Rings of Power Season 2 Narrowly Avoids SAG Strike Disaster

Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has become one of the company's most ambitious projects, with Jeff Bezos personally negotiating with J. R. R. Tolkien's estate to acquire the rights to the franchise and the studio budgeting approximately $465 million for the first season — an unprecedented sum in the history of TV series.

However, fans of the world of Middle-earth, and the television adaptation in particular, have been on edge for months about the future of the series. Due to multiple delays in the second season, the writers' and the upcoming actors' strike, The Rings of Power has been in danger of going on indefinite hiatus. But it looks like Amazon is pulling out all the stops to make sure that doesn't happen.

Since May 2, members of the Writing Guild of America labor union have been on picket lines demanding that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers improve their wages and working conditions and address the issues of residuals and the heavy use of AI, which devalues the work of writers and actors but saves money for the studios.

The SAG-AFTRA union, which represents actors, hosts and anchors, musicians and other media personalities, was also negotiating the same issues with the producers.

As the deadline for negotiations expired and the contract was not renewed, with the AMPTP seemingly ignoring the writers' and actors' demands, the SAG will soon begin an active strike campaign. This is the first such large-scale strike in the film industry in over 60 years — the last time both screenwriters and actors picketed for months together, led by Ronald Reagan, was in 1960.

Now, back to The Rings of Power and the fate of Season 2. After the success of the premiere season in September 2022, filming for the sequel began a month later, but was delayed several times. Ultimately, the team was unable to wrap up production before the WGA strike, and showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay were absent for the remainder of the filming when the strike began.

Though the absence of the main writers has probably affected the quality of the season, it looks like the new installment is coming out on time after all.

As a Variety report confirmed on Wednesday, production for the second season finished a few weeks ago, in early June. This means that, although the show suffered a bit without its showrunners on board, Season 2 will not be affected by the upcoming SAG-AFTRA strike. What a relief!

Season 2 of The Rings of Power is scheduled to come out in 2024, and it looks like it will be one of the few releases the following year.

Source: Variety.