Marvel Pauses ‘Thunderbolts’ Shooting

The movie joins a growing list of projects on pause, including Marvel’s ‘Blade’ and ‘Daredevil: Born Again’, and Amazon’s ‘Blade Runner 2099’.

Marvel Studios' 'Thunderbolts.'

The ongoing strike, which sees writers taking industrial action for a fairer deal from the studios, is starting to have more and more impact on movies and TV series.

Most of the main networks have indicated that they’re planning to change their fall schedules to favor reality, other unscripted series and reruns because of the lack of new scripts. Much of their scripted output has been moved to mid-season and other changes are on the way. During the most recent strike, in 2007-2008, US screens saw a rebounded era of reality television, which doesn’t require union writers.

Even Marvel is not safe from delays and issues with its shows and movies. The company recently hit pause on ‘Daredevil: Born Again’, had had been in the midst of a lengthy shoot in New York, while ‘Wonder Man’ shut down also. And it faced another delay on ‘Blade’, which had already been through its share of problems, including a director switch and script re-writes. But with no work allowed on the screenplay, production will have to wait.

‘Blade’ is not the only movie facing delays –– according to Deadline, ‘Thunderbolts’, the company’s anti-hero adventure, which was due to kick off filming in Atlanta in three weeks, is also shutting down until a deal is reached and the strike ends.

Thunderbolts*

"Careful who you assemble."

Not Yet RatedMay 2nd, 2025

An irreverent team-up featuring depressed assassin Yelena Belova alongside the MCU’s least anticipated band of misfits. Read the Plot

Who is in the Thunderbolts movie?

We know (most of) the characters who will be showing up, since they were announced last year at Disney’s D23 event: Bucky Barnes (formerly The Winter Soldier), played by Sebastian Stan, is a key figure alongside Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, Olga Kurylenko’s Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster and David Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, those three having been introduced in ‘Black Widow’.

Then there’s John Walker, AKA US Agent, played by Wyatt Russell and first seen in ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ and Hannah John-Kamen’s Ava Starr, the phasing character known as Ghost, who debuted in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’.

As for those overseeing the team, we have Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, AKA Val, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who was also introduced in the ‘Falcon’ series and has since cropped up in the likes of ‘Black Widow’ and ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’. We also have Thaddeus Ross––last seen in ‘Black Widow’ and played since ‘The Incredible Hulk’ by William Hurt. But because of the actor’s death last year, Marvel has had to recast the role, tapping genre icon Harrison Ford to take over. Ross is reportedly the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s current President of the US (at least in ‘Captain America: New World Order’) so that’ll likely factor in.

And more recently, we learned that ‘The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun and ‘The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri are also aboard in mystery roles.

Jake Schreier is on board to direct, with his ‘Beef’ collaborator Lee Sung Jin the most recent writer.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus from 'Thunderbolts' at D23 Expo 2022.

Amazon and more

Marvel is far from the only company with projects seeing delays. Lionsgate stopped work on Aziz Ansari’s new film, ‘Good Fortune’, which has Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen in its cast. It’s the latest blow to Ansari’s directorial career, which had seen previous effort ‘Being Mortal’ curtailed following claims of inappropriate behavior on the part of star Bill Murray.

Amazon’s Prime Video had been about to start shooting ‘Blade Runner 2099,' the live-action sequel series to the original 1982 movie and 2017 sequel ‘Blade Runner 2049’.

The series was scheduled to shoot in Northern Ireland, but the strike means that it’s also been delayed.

Here’s what the country’s film had to say on the matter:

“Northern Ireland Screen is extremely disappointed that 'Blade Runner 2099' is not going ahead at this time due to the ongoing writers’ strike. The project has been prepping on the ground in Belfast for many months now. The WGA strike has been halting production all over the world and we hope a fair deal is reached soon so crew can get back to work.”

1982's 'Blade Runner' Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

If the delay is significant, it’s likely to shift the show’s production back until next spring, a significant postponement. Silka Luisa, showrunner of Apple TV+’s ‘Shining Girls’, is writing and executive producing 'Blade Runner 2099,' which comes from Alcon Entertainment and Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions (Scott, of course, directed the original movie and has been involved in the franchise ever since).

In the wider world, we know that the likes of ‘Stranger Things’, ‘Cobra Kai’, ‘The Last of Us’, ‘Loot’ and ‘Abbott Elementary’ are among the big-name series seeing the impact, but while those will be later arriving, viewers are already seeing the impact, as the late-night shows, such as those hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert are on indefinite hiatus and ‘Saturday Night Live’ has curtailed its season.

As mentioned, it will be a while before we see the total fallout of the strike, since some shows, including ‘House of the Dragon’ and ‘Good Omens’ have second seasons that were finished before the strike began.

Some companies and networks –– especially the CW, though that appears to have been its policy even before the strike –– are looking to shows produced outside of the States to fill gaps and help maintain viewers.

And there will be a full program of movies for at least the next year and likely into 2024 as many productions were at least wrapped or in post-production.

It is also an issue for companies looking to promote their work, either for upcoming releases or (in the case of TV shows) awards consideration, as talent is skipping interviews and events in solidarity with the writers.

Finally, there is more trouble for studios on the horizon since the Directors Guild and SAG-AFTRA, which represents actors, still have to work out their contracts and their members have already been showing their support for their fellow creatives on strike lines.