On Friday, August 8th, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced the expulsion of two members based on violating the terms and conditions of the 2023 strike. After a five-month-long investigation, Park Chan-wook and his writing partner Don McKellar received notice that their post-production editing work on HBO’s The Sympathizer (2024) constituted a violation of strike rules. While this isn’t the first case of expulsion caused by violating the 2023 strike rules, Park and McKellar’s expulsion, mere weeks before the Venice premiere of their latest feature, No Other Choice (2025), has certainly grabbed public attention.
When the news initially broke, film fans expressed shock and disappointment over a highly acclaimed filmmaker caught scabbing. Working on scripts for a show made for a studio at the forefront of conversations on the awful treatment of writers is a clear-cut case of picket line crossing. A lack of an immediate response from either of the accused and a lack of clarity on what guidelines Park and McKellar violated further stoked the flames of curiosity and vitriol.
Scabbing—a colloquial term for performing actions that break a strike—during a strike for widespread industry protections against generative AI/large language models (LLMs) and providing better residual compensation in the era of streaming is objectively a gross thing to do. Additionally, neither Park nor McKellar had made a move to appeal the decision made by the WGA’s Board of Directors, which seemingly confused people even more.
Three days later, Park Chan-wook’s production company, Moho Film, released its response clarifying the details omitted from the WGA release. The statement outlines that The Sympathizer had already wrapped production and started on post-production by the start of the strike in May 2023. During the period of “pencils down,” HBO sent the two a proposal to change some of the settings in the show. While Park, McKellar, and their writing team did not write new material in response to the proposal until after the strike, they did set up a brainstorming session to see if the proposed changes were possible.
The Moho Film’s statement also added that this potential violation was investigated in December 2024. At the time, the jury of WGA members concluded that Park and McKellar should be issued a confidential warning since the violation stemmed from a lack of clarity on their roles during the post-production process. The WGA Board of Directors, however, overrode the jury’s decision.
While this final ruling does not bar Park and McKellar from working on WGA-censured projects in other capacities, the expulsion does severely limit their ability to work with the major Hollywood studios. This would normally mean career death for those who regularly work within the Hollywood system. However, Park primarily works in South Korea, and McKellar works in South Korea and Canada. Both joined the WGA expressly for work on The Sympathizer.
Park is also still a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and, thus, can still work with major Hollywood studios in a directorial capacity. Neither Park nor McKellar has filed an appeal, partially due to the final ruling coming as the duo finish post-production on No Other Choice before its Venice premiere. However, in the Moho Film statement, Park explicitly maintained his innocence and proclaimed support for the guild and the stated goals of the 2023 strikes.
Park’s expulsion in particular points to unresolved contractual conflicts between Hollywood’s various guilds. The distinction of what counts as writing in the post-production process varies between the WGA and DGA. This dispute goes back several decades and includes a Supreme Court case in 1978. American Broadcasting Cos. v. Writers Guild of America West came on the back of the 1973 WGA strike in which several writer-directors and writer-producers were investigated for scabbing by violating the “(a) through (h) services” as labelled in WGA guidelines.
These services, which include post-production work like that suggested to Park and McKellar, are outlined as responsibilities for both writers and directors in the respective guild contracts. While the WGA counts performing these actions during the strike as scabbing, the DGA says writer-directors should still get the pass to perform these actions as part of their directorial responsibilities if given written instruction from the studio.
The impetus for the Supreme Court case stemmed from the WGA issuing threats to writer-directors performing these services with permission from the DGA; while the court ruled that unions could not exercise discipline under these circumstances, the WGA maintains that hyphenate members cannot make post-production script edits of any kind during a strike, even with DGA permission.
Park isn’t the only writer-director expelled from the WGA due to this unclear territory between guild guidelines. Edward Drake, writer-director of Guns Up (2025), was expelled for pre-production script adjustments in light of safety concerns from the 2023 Canadian wildfires. Based on the DGA’s advice to writer-directors, he determined that said changes fell under the purview of his role as director. He received an eighteen-month suspension from the guild in April, which was upheld a month later after his appeal was denied.
The more concerning part of Park’s case is how the final decision came about. The jury of writers ruled that Park and McKellar, as recent members, should be granted the guild’s equivalent of a wrist slap. However, the Board of Directors overruled to expel the duo without providing a reason to the jury, Park and McKellar, or to any news outlets when asked for comment. This, combined with the still-disputed overlap regarding the (a) through (h) services between the DGA and WGA, calls into question whether Hollywood guilds’ contracts are due for rigorous scrutiny.
The WGA’s perpetual strictness on (a) through (h) services has some merit. Since the modern iterations of both unions formed in the 1960s, the WGA has gone on strike six times, while the DGA has only struck once for less than a day. Hyphenate members of both guilds, therefore, can lean on the DGA’s more lenient policies on post-production to continue working around strikes. This is precisely the impetus for the aforementioned circumstances and threats that led to the Supreme Court case. And, although the WGA cannot issue threats of expulsion due to that case’s ruling, the guild does need some manner of discipline in place for (a) through (h) service violations during strikes.
A nearly fifty-year-long discrepancy in the contracts of Hollywood’s biggest guilds certainly calls for a major overhaul, especially if these guilds want to put up a united front in this tumultuous era within the entertainment industry. The WGA’s track record of quick expulsions and closed-off judiciary processes, in conjunction with the DGA’s leniency to give writer-directors potentially picket-line-crossing loopholes, does nothing but sow discord. The seemingly random nature of the investigations and rulings adds further layers of confusion to the matter. Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar’s recent expulsion is merely a high-profile example of the messiness of guild politicking and how it can harm their members instead of helping them.
Analysis Courtesy of Red Broadwell
Feature Image of Park Chan-Wook; Credit to Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
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