Actors Strike Ended, Hollywood Filming Can Resume

The Actors strike has officially ended as of yesterday. What this means is actors can get back to work filming their projects and promoting whatever it is they have to promote. Since the writers' strike ended two months ago, likely multiple shows have four or more scripts ready to film. However, there are still a whole lot of logistics to get through to get the production machinery turned back on such as finding out when actors may become available to film.

Ideally the answer to availability is immediately but show leads especially tend get to enjoy a life few of us do and that life often includes a whole lot of travel be it for personal or professional (appearances, cons, speaking engagements, etc.). Once know their availability they can work on a start date and start getting the crew together to make sure sets and other equipment is ready to go. Then have to film an episode, do the post production work, etc. So even if things started filming Monday, realistically no new episodes of TV would be available until mid-January at the earliest. Sounds good, but Star Trek, due to its post-production needs, may film at the pace of a TV show but produces final results at a movie pace.

So what impact will this have on Star Trek? Short answer: Nothing. Just means filming can start. That nothing was announced as cancelled during the strikes is actually a good sign of overall plans being unchanged, just production and release schedules.

Discovery final season - Had already completed all filming. Strike period was just post-production work. At most they can do some voice dialogue replacement if needed where before the actors would not be allowed to.

Strange New Worlds Season 3 - scripts and pre-production done, can start filming as soon as can get the cast together. Update: Fimling on S3 now scheduled from December 11 to July 2024.

Section 31 movie - script is completed, likely biggest issue is nailing down Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh down for the two to four weeks may take to film it as she is likely highly in demand.

Starfleet Academy season 1 - Writers room assembled and working on scripts so production likely to start up sometime in 2024.

Lower Decks season 5 - Not really impacted by the strikes from a production standpoint as animation is under a separate contract. However the voice work was put on pause since all were also under SAG contracts. Chances are a whole lot of the work around the incomplete voice acting has been completed and now just a matter of getting the recordings which is the easiest part of the whole animation process.

Star Trek 4 - Paramount has scripts, lots of scripts for this. Still no movement. The strikes had no impact on this as film budget, actor pay, and schedules continue to be the primary hurdles.

Star Trek Legacy - Something fans have indicated they want after a very strong Picard season 3 but Paramount has never announced this or any other additional series during the strike and no change on that front so far. If anything new is announced, probably be sometime next year.