WGA Toss Out Park Chan-wook & Don McKellar For Writing On HBO's 'The Sympathizer' During 2023 Strike

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Deadline

By Dominic Patten

August 8, 2025 11:06pm

The Robert Downey Jr. produced and starring The Sympathizer came and went last year with a lot less fanfare than many expected due to the talent involved and the fact the miniseries was based on Viet Thanh Nguyen‘s Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name. However, some unexpected fallout from the Emmy-nominated Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar created and written high-profile project emerged today from the Writers Guild of America West, and it really ain’t pretty.

The acclaimed Oldboy director and the multiple Genie Award winner have both been expelled from the WGA West.

The ejection is result of Park and McKellar crossing a pretty big line. In contradiction of all the rules of Hollywood labor best practices, the duo worked and wrote on the HBO miniseries during the 2023 strike that saw the scribes’ guild and SAG-AFTRA bring Hollywood to a halt for almost six months. The consequences that Park and McKellar have now suffered, as was revealed by the WGAW in a missive to members today, is the harshest the Guild can bring down on members, and in this case, some very high-profile members.

“Three other members were disciplined for violating the strike rules during the 2023 MBA strike, and those members did not appeal,” the WGAW said Friday of Park and McKellar, as well as Anthony Cipriano (who is suspended until May 1, 2026). “In each of these cases, the boards decided these disciplines should be made public.”


L-R) Don McKellar & Park Chan-wook attend the LA Premiere of HBO's The Sympathizer on April 09, 2024
Getty



Read more: https://deadline.com/author/dpatten/