The Chosen was the first independent production to be granted a waiver during the strikes that brought Hollywood to a halt. The WGA strike did not affect the show, but their actors are part of the Screen Actors Guild.
Producer Chad Gundersen says they were close to wrapping and happy to agree to interim terms the SAG union set so they could finish season 4, “Everybody was in agreement, even our actors were like, ‘What can we do? How do we make this happen? We don’t want to shut down and have to come back months from now to finish these two weeks of shooting.’ And again SAG actually worked with us quite well, because at the end of the day, the fight wasn’t with the independents. The fight’s with the studios.”
Gundersen says producers are already looking ahead to next year with the contract for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees set to expire at the end of July and a contract with Teamsters also ending, “There’s not a whole lot you can do to technically prepare, outside of not-be-shooting when that strike may happen. There’s not been any talk of interim agreements for these other unions. What SAG did was unique. It’s never been done before. And so what will happen with these other unions is hard to say.”
The Chosen is on track for its planned January release of Season 4. Producers plan to start shooting Season 5 in the spring.