By As everyone is aware, the Writers Guild of America is on strike as of May 1, 2023. One of its aspects is that there can be no writing of any kind for the duration of the strike. Not on new projects, not on projects in production. Here we’ll take a look at how this may affect Netflix’s The Witcher plans.
The Witcher Season 4 and Season 5 may no longer be produced back-to-back
Back in September 2022, we reported that Netflix had the intention to produce Season 4 and Season 5 of The Witcher back-to-back. In January, those plans were still in place. But they are not solid anymore.
The initial plan was to spend the majority of 2023 writing Season 4 and Season 5. Season 4 is already mostly written, with both seasons already outlined. But work cannot continue to finish Season 4 and start on Season 5 until the strike ends.
If the writers strike is long, and so far parties don’t seem remotely close to any agreement, Netflix will have to abandon its plan to produce both seasons back-to-back and do it the usual way.
They do have several months to spare, however, mostly because of Rats.
The Rats prequel is in a peculiar position
This brings us to the Rats prequel, that is ready for production in Cape Town, South Africa. Just recently we reported that all of the cast for the Rats are already on location.
Per the strike rules, showrunner Haily Hall, a WGA member, can’t do any writing during production, which includes rewrites and any tweaks whatsoever. However, we don’t know which route they took with this project. Some showrunners decided to completely recuse themselves from production like on The Rings of Power, while some reportedly will only focus on non-writing duties.
Executive producer Tomek Baginski has confirmed earlier that he’s in Africa as well. If filming for the Rats begins and continues without a showrunner, he could step in and help instead.
Is it possible that production on Rats halts? With all the cast and there, and all the pain of securing visas to South Africa, it seems unlikely, but not impossible. We’ll have to wait and see.
Last we heard, filming for the Rats prequel is planned to span 5 to 6 months. With such core crew involved as Baginski or production designer Andrew Laws, this likely means The Witcher Season 4 can’t begin production until the Rats are done by the end of 2023.
Which brings us back to an earlier point. Season 4 has likely until the end of this year to finish and revise scripts, without being considered delayed. Because it wasn’t planned to begin filming until late 2023 or even early 2024 anyway. Writing for Season 5, however, will depend heavily on how long the writers strike goes on.
And all now depends on the negotiations between the writers and the studios and when they reach an agreement regarding their issues.
Season 3 of The Witcher is in post-production for a June and July release. The Rats spin-off is currently in pre-production. Stay tuned to Redanian Intelligence and do pop into our Discord server to join in on The Witcher conversation.
Positive impact for Witcher. Writers are terrible and its better when they are not working.
^^^This^^^