“House of the Dragon” George R.R. Martin said he was “shocked” by the U.K. laws that keep the HBO spin-off series shooting amid the recently enacted SAG-AFTRA strike.
Martin confirmed in a recent blog post that the “Game of Thrones” prequel series has continued production in European locations — including London, Wales and Spain — and shared he was told the “second season is half done.” While “no writing has been done” since Martin turned in the scripts months before the WGA strike began in May, he explained that since the actors are members of the British union, Equity, “British law forbids them from staging a sympathy strike” amid the SAG-AFTRA strike.
“Honestly, I was shocked to hear that,” Martin wrote on his blog. “One of the two major UK political parties, Labour, has its roots in the trade union movement. How in the world could they have allowed such anti-labor regulations to be enacted? Seems to me that Labour Party really needs to do a better job of protecting the right to strike.”
Martin also revealed that his overall deal with HBO was suspended on June 1 amid the ongoing WGA strike. However, Martin calls himself “one of the lucky ones” with “plenty to do” when he’s not on the picket line in New Mexico, noting that he recently met with producers for the “Game of Thrones” stage play “The Iron Throne,” which is not impacted by the strike. He added that he is “editing a couple new Wild Cards books” and steadily working on “Winds of Winter,” the long awaited sixth novel in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series.
“These strikes are not really about name writers or producers or showrunners, most of whom are fine,” Martin continued. “We’re striking for the entry level writers, the story editors, the students hoping to break in, the actor who has four lines, the guy working his first staff job who dreams of creating his own show one day, as I did back in the 80s.”
After joining the WGA in 1986 and going through several strikes with the guild, Martin called out the current strike as “the most important of my lifetime” and applauded the unity he’s seeing between the guilds. While Martin noted that “no one can be certain where we go from here,” he admitted that he has a “bad feeling that this strike will be long and bitter.”
“I hope we will have your support,” Martin concluded. “HONK if you see us picketing… and NEVER cross a picket line… and maybe we will be able to get this settled quickly. Before we all lose our houses.”
