“Evil” is wrapping up filming on Season 4 earlier than anticipated. After the set faced disruptions by picketing Writers Guild members on Friday, the Paramount+ series is now seeing a cast member take a leave of absence due to a personal family matter. As a result, production has wrapped early on the next season.
A source close to the series would only confirm that the early end to filming was a result of the unnamed actor’s temporary exit from the show. However, no filming occurred on Friday, as Writers Guild members on strike demonstrated near the production.
The fourth season of “Evil” was commissioned to include 10 episodes. It remains unclear whether the early end to production will impact those plans.
On Friday, Starlee Kine, a writer on “Search Party” and public radio producer, shared a photograph of striking Writers Guild members on Twitter. Kine details how the picketers disrupted the “Evil” shoot, claiming that production was shut down at about 1 a.m.
“A handful of us walking in a tiny circle cost them the day’s shoot,” Kine wrote. “We were told the producers were pissed. They kept the crew there for hours, sitting on the sidewalk. We felt the solidarity. We’ll win this whole thing together.”
WE WON. Evil (the show) shut down around 1 am. A handful of us walking in a tiny circle cost them the day’s shoot. We were told the producers were pissed They kept the crew there for hours, sitting on the sidewalk. We felt the solidarity. We’ll win this whole thing together pic.twitter/LygVt77c30
— Starlee Kine (@StarleeKine) May 6, 2023
“The IATSE crew was across the street from us the entire time, not crossing the picket line,” Kine told PvNew. “They bought us ice cream, asked us if we had any song requests. It was one of the crew, Henry’s, birthday and they sang him happy birthday and we sang it too from across the street.”
Kine also shared a TikTok that she says an IATSE crew member made during the evening, documenting the writers’ picket line and the crew’s production standstill.
Among the picketing writers highlighted in Kine’s posts on social media are Jonathan Bines, Joseph Opio and Harry Cooke. Kine also shared a video of the group picketing near set at Broadway Stages in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn.
This was us at 1230, when the show still hadn’t let the crew (who were outside, not crossing the picket line) go home. That’s @LOLUganda, Jay from @nycDSA and Jonathan Bines pic.twitter/gH6nFmXYRz
— Starlee Kine (@StarleeKine) May 6, 2023
“Evil” was renewed in July 2022, as the series was airing episodes of its third season. The psychological mystery series stars Katja Herbers as Dr. Kristen Bouchard, a forensic psychologist who investigates supernatural incidents with Catholic priest David Acosta (Mike Colter) and technology expert Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi).
Series creators Robert King and Michelle King serve as executive producers alongside Liz Glotzer, Rockne S. O’Bannon and Nelson McCormick. “Evil” comes from CBS Studios in association with King Size Productions. It is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.
