The CW’s Jesus show resurrected amid actors strike

The Chosen fans, your prayers have been answered. The crowdfunded television series about the life and times of Jesus Christ, which was recently picked up by the CW, will continue filming despite the recently called SAG-AFTRA strike. According to the series’ official Twitter page, The Chosen was granted an exemption from the union that exempts the production from the work stoppage.

On July 13, hours before the stoppage officially began, the series posted on Twitter: “Unfortunately, despite the requested work we did on our end, an exemption for us will not be granted in time to avoid a shutdown. We will do a little filming tomorrow of everything that doesn’t require our cast, and then we’ll wait and hope that either the strike ends (unlikely soon), or that we’re granted an exemption and can resume filming. Yes, it’s upsetting and will cost time and money…but we bring our 5 loaves & 2 fish. God handles the rest.”

After production was halted, creator Dallas Jenkins also posted a personal plea to his Instagram. “Dear @sagaftra, We’ve submitted all the requested paperwork immediately. We fit all qualifications for an exemption. Every day that goes by without your response costs us hundreds of thousands of dollars while your actors are stuck in Utah. We’re the good guys. We’ve treated your actors well. Please take a few minutes to approve our application so your actors can get back to work getting paid for the last two weeks of a season they want to finish.”

SAG-AFTRA announced it would grant exemptions to independent productions willing to sign “interim agreements” with the union. According to Deadline, that agreement includes paying actors an 11% wage increase, which was SAG-AFTRA’s last counter in negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), though micro-budget projects may have different interim agreement terms. These independent productions cannot be affiliated with any of the companies that make up the AMPTP and will be “retroactively to whatever contract terms eventually are achieved with the AMPTP when the strike is settled,” per Deadline.

These interim agreements are expected to be granted largely to indie films, but The Chosen’s first three seasons were crowdfunded, making it a mostly independent production. The fact that the show just got a cushy licensing deal with Lionsgate (which sent Jesus to the CW) is a gray area. According to Deadline, the licensing deal may only be for the first three seasons, not the fourth, which is currently in production. The series is distributed by Angel Studios (of Sound Of Freedom fame), which is an independent operation that finances multiple productions through crowdfunding.

After a brief shutdown, The Chosen announced that it had “been approved for a waiver” on Sunday. And not a moment too soon, as fans were beginning to get conspiratorial. (As is their wont—see Sound Of Freedom.) “They don’t want Christian shows,” Leigh Allyn Baker (of Good Luck Charlie fame) commented on Jenkins’ plea to SAG-AFTRA. “Paranoid? Maybe. Possibly? Absolutely. My theory: the strike is intended to slow down/stop all forward movement for the Chosen series as well as the Resurrection movies,” wrote one Twitter user. “The devil is in the details.”

“Simply, the actors we employ are SAG actors, and the union is striking, which applies to all in the union,” The Chosen social media responded to this bit of conspiracy thinking, explaining to another that “our actors are not striking against us.” The show will continue its fourth season shoot beginning on Monday.