Filming on Ariana Grande’s Wicked ceases in UK amid Hollywood actors’ strike

Filming on Ariana Grande’s latest film Wicked has ceased amid a transatlantic strike by actors that began yesterday.

Dramatic photos show the abandoned set in Buckinghamshire after the union representing Hollywood stars ordered members to down tools amid a row over how streaming services are pushing down pay and the increasing use of AI in production.

Pop star Grande is set to portray heroine Glinda the Good in the upcoming film, but signalled her support for the strike on Instagram yesterday by sharing news of the protest.

Other productions in the UK, including Deadpool 3, Beetlejuice 2, Speak No Evil and the next Avatar sequel are also set to be affected.

The strike, coordinated by US actors’ union the Screen Actors Guild (Sag-Aftra), began yesterday, prompting the star-studded cast of upcoming Christopher Nolan epic Oppenheimer to walk out of the film’ UK premiere in London.

Stars including Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh were visibly emotional as they exited the premiere early. 

Filming on Ariana Grande’s latest film Wicked has ceased amid a transatlantic strike by actors that began yesterday. Dramatic photos show the abandoned set in Buckinghamshire

Scores of people could be seen on the set of Wicked in April. Today the set is deserted

Pop star Grande is set to portray heroine Glinda the Good in the upcoming film. Above: Grande on the set of Wicked in June

Director Nolan later said the cast had left the event to ‘write their picket signs.’ 

Under the rules of a strike, all Sag-aftra members will not be able to film any movie or TV series – which means that almost every show and film that’s currently in the works will be delayed indefinitely until the problem is resolved.

US networks have responded to the strike by expanding the amount of ‘unscripted content’ for their autumn schedules, including The Masked Singer, The Amazing Race, Survivor and Kitchen Nightmares.   

British union Equity, the sister organisation to Sag-aftra, said in a statement that they are are ‘full square behind’ their US counterpart.

However, they said they have been advised that the action is not lawful under UK law, meaning any performer who joins the strike or refuses to cross a picket line in Britain will have no protection if production companies sack them or sue them for breach of copyright.

Grande is starring in the film adaptation of the hit stage musical Wicked

The set, made to look like the magical land of Oz, is seen deserted today

Mobile cranes and metal scaffolding are seen on the deserted set of Wicked today

The pictures show how the strike will hit British technical staff as well as the Hollywood stars

Wicked’s release date is set for November next year, meaning the halt to production could push that back

Not so magical: Colourful structures on the set of Wicked in Buckinghamshire are seen abandoned today

Grande signalled her support for the strike on Instagram yesterday by sharing news of the protest

Sag-Aftra represents more than 160,000 screen actors, broadcast journalists, announcers, hosts and stunt performers.

The walkout affects only the union’s 65,000 actors from television and film productions.

Wicked’s release date is set for November next year, meaning the halt to production could push that back.  

Deadpool 3, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, is scheduled to hit screens next May but this date could also now be pushed back.

The next Avatar film is set to be released in December 2025 so could also be affected, although filming has already been completed. 

Speak No Evil is billed for next August, whilst Beatlejuice 2 is meant to be released in September 2024.

Other films that are currently being filmed in the UK include The Radleys, Amateur, and romantic comedy The Gorge, which stars Anya Taylor-Joy. 

Filming for Gladiator 2, which started in June, is also partly taking place in UK – as well as in Malta and Morocco – and so could be affected. 

The Deadpool 3 set, also in Buckinghamshire, stands deserted as well as the strike begins – with a 20th Century Fox logo half-buried in the sand

No filming could be seen on the set, where Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman had previously been shooting scenes

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are seen filming Deadpool 3 on July 12

Just 2 days earlier the stars filmed a fight scene in front of the same 20th Century Fox logo

On July 11 Reynolds, dressed as his Deadpool alter ego, and Jackman, as Wolverine, discussed a scene when work was still continuing on the film

A number of TV series being filmed in the UK might also be impacted, including spy thriller The Day Of The Jackal starring Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne and period boxing drama A Thousand Blows with Stephen Graham.

The second series of The Sandman with Tom Sturridge and the fourth series of Slow Horses with Academy Award winner Gary Oldman could also be affected. 

However, filming for the second series of House of the Dragon, starring Matt Smith and Emma D’Arcy, may continue despite the strike, due to the fact that its stars are working under contracts governed by Equity, according to Variety.

Filming for Gladiator 2, which started in June, is also partly taking place in UK – as well as in Malta and Morocco – and so could be affected. Above: The Gladiator set in Morocco 

This is the moment the cast of Oppenheimer walked out of the film’s UK premiere on Thursday, as thousands of actors went on the biggest strike to hit Hollywood in 60 years

Leaving! Stars including Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh were visibly emotional as they exited the premiere early

Off they go! Footage from the black carpet showed the cast posing for photos together before making their way back to their hotel in London

Matt Damon signs autographs outside The Corinthia Hotel in London on Thursday night after walking out of the Oppenheimer premiere 

Matt Damon arrives back to his hotel in central London after walking out of the Oppenheimer premiere amid a Hollywood strike

Tamsin Egerton in London last night after joining a major Hollywood strike 

Josh Hartnett leaves his hotel in London on Thursday night after joining the first major Hollywood strike in 60 years

Florence Pugh arriving back to her hotel in central London on Thursday night after walking out of the Oppenheimer premiere due to strikes in Hollywood

At 07.01 UK time, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA), representing around 160,000 movie and television actors, tweeted a black picture alongside the message: ’12:01 a.m. PT That’s a wrap!’

‘This is a moment of history, a moment of truth – if we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble,’ SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher told a press conference, following the union board’s unanimous vote to strike.

‘We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines and big business.’

Writers have already spent 11 weeks protesting outside the headquarters of the likes of Disney and Netflix, after their demands for better pay and guarantees over the use artificial intelligence were not met.

At last night’s premiere of Oppenheimer at the Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square, Sir Kenneth Branagh, who portrays Danish physicist Niels Bohr in the film, said: ‘Everybody is working very hard to make sure it doesn’t happen, if it happens I stand in solidarity with our Sag members.

‘We know it is a critical time at this point in the industry and the issues need to be addressed, difficult conversations, I know everybody is trying to get a fair deal, that is what’s required so we’ll support that.’

Main star Cillian Murphy said: ‘I stand by my colleagues, that’s all I can say to you.’

Meanwhile British actress Florence Pugh said that the cast felt lucky to have got to the Oppenheimer premiere before the strike was announced but also lucky to be standing in solidarity with their acting peers.

She said: ‘It’s been a really, really tense few days for a lot of people, not just actors but everybody in the industry who are going to be affected by this decision but affected by a decision that is necessary.

‘Equally, premieres aren’t just for us, they are to honour a movie, they are to honour a crew that made them so we feel both lucky, that we got to squeeze this in, and also lucky that we get to stand by our peers in a decision that is made.

‘We hope that something comes of it soon.’

In a red-carpet interview with Variety on the night, Pugh’s fellow Oppenheimer star Matt Damon revealed that ‘once the strike is officially called’, the cast is ‘going to walk obviously in solidarity’.

‘That’s why we moved this [red carpet] up because we know the second it’s called, we’re going home,’ he said.

He added to the Associated Press: ‘We ought to protect the people who are kind of on the margins,’ Damon told the AP.

‘And 26,000 bucks a year is what you have to make to get your health insurance. And there are a lot of people whose residual payments are what carry them across that threshold.

‘And if those residual payments dry up, so does their health care. And that´s absolutely unacceptable. We can´t have that. So, we got to figure out something that is fair.’

Speaking on stage at the premiere ahead of the strike announcement, filmmaker Nolan said: ‘I have to acknowledge the work of our incredible cast, led by Cillian Murphy.

‘The list is enormous – Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek and so many more. You’ve seen them here earlier on the red carpet.

‘Unfortunately, they are off to write their picket signs for what we believe to be an imminent strike by SAG, joining one of my guilds, the Writers Guild, in the struggle for fair wages for working members of their union.’

However, ahead of the strike, Disney boss Bob Iger slammed the actors who were going to down tools, saying they ‘are not being realistic’ and are being ‘disruptive to the industry’.

‘It’s very disturbing to me,’ the 72-year-old said, claiming that actors like Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence are ‘not being realistic’ about the compensation benefits they are asking for.

He added that an actors’ strike ‘will have a very, very damaging effect on the whole business’ and even affect the economy’. 

He was speaking on Disney’s Squawk Box after his $27million-a-year contract was extended until 2026.  

The strike news comes after the US union and Hollywood studios failed to reach an agreement after more than four weeks of negotiations, with actors wanting better pay and increased safeguarding around AI rights among their demands.

Last month Sag-Aftra members voted overwhelmingly to authorise a strike if a new contract with major studios, streamers and…