The showrunner for the first season of Marvel’s Daredevil reported that Netflix never paid him residuals for the episodes he wrote.
Steven DeKnight, a longtime screenwriter with credits on Pacific Rim Uprising and Smallville, among others, claimed on Twitter that he still has not received a residual check from Netflix or Disney for subsequent streams of Daredevil episodes on which he is credited. The writer stated that he had resigned himself to never getting the money that Netflix owed him, but that after Disney+ picked up the show, it prompted him to join a slew of other writers in an audit to get the company to pay them the money they are owed for their work on their respective projects.
DeKnight’s public statement follows that of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law writer Cody Ziglar, who claimed that Disney only sent him $396 in residuals despite the fact that his episode of the series, which featured the highly-anticipated MCU return of Daredevil, was one of the most-watched episodes on Disney+. Both actors have joined an ongoing protest petitioning for more consistent residual pay and fairer, long-term wages for writers.
Residuals are amounts of money studios owe to those involved in the production of a film or television series for reruns, rereleases or online streaming. Typically, the payments are made to writers after every airing of a TV episode or film, but the advent of streaming platforms like Netflix have created a grey area that allowed companies to waive residual pay entirely.
Members of the Writers Guild of America recently began a nationwide strike to hold companies accountable and apply the same rules that network television has in place in regard to residuals, which requires consistent pay to those involved in a project in the event or reruns or rereleases. The WGA is also protesting the use of artificial intelligence by major studios in an effort to streamline the writing process and cost writers their jobs. As the strike grows in numbers and supporters, various productions continue to face delays, such as the upcoming Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again and the upcoming finale to the Mission: Impossible franchise.
The strike recently expanded to actors as well, as the Screen Actors Guild joined the protests and began to walk out of major premieres and sign documents agreeing to avoid promotional events. Recently, the main stars of the Christopher Nolan epic Oppenheimer walked out of the film’s premiere in solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA protestors.
Daredevil and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law are available to stream on Disney+.
Source: Twitter