WGA Strike: ‘XO, Kitty’ Showrunners Skipping Premiere Of Netflix Series; “This Moment Is Bigger Than Me”, Creator Jenny Han Says – Update
UPDATED 7 PM: For the past two years, Xo, Kitty creator, executive producer and co-showrunner Jenny Han and executive producer and co-showrunner Sascha Rothchild worked on Netflix’s spinoff series from the hit All The Boys I’ve Loved Before movie trilogy. As the series holds its premiere tonight at the Netflix Tudum theater in Hollywood, the duo, along with the rest of the show’s writers, won’t be on hand to celebrate with the cast, producers and executives.
They are sitting the event out as part of WGA’s strike efforts. Writers and multi-hyphenated, including showrunners, are supporting their guild by not participating in any activities related to their series during the work stoppage.
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“This moment is bigger than me, It’s bigger than the shows. And what’s at stake is the future of writers and our ability to keep telling stories and we are asking for fair compensation,” Han said in a video to fans, in which she has on the dress she had planned to wear to the premiere. (You can watch it below.)
“In all my shows, I wear a lot of different hats at any given moment, I’m the author, creator, a producer, a showrunner, a screenwriter, and each of these different roles come with different responsibilities and obligations,” Han added later. “So even though it breaks my heart to not be there, I really want to hold the line and stand by my guild and my fellow writers right now. The situation is constantly evolving and this decision was a really hard one for me but all I can do is make the best decision for today and hope that we will find a resolution soon that values the hard work and the creativity of writers.”
In XO, Kitty, teen matchmaker Kitty Song Covey (Anna Cathcart) thinks she knows everything there is to know about love. But when she moves halfway across the world to reunite with her long-distance boyfriend, she’ll soon realize that relationships are a lot more complicated when it’s your own heart on the line.
The half-hour dramedy, from the films’ Awesomeness and ACE Entertainment, is a spinoff inspired by the popular movie trilogy as well as the bestselling book series by Han, who is the TV series’ creator and co-wrote the pilot script with Siobhan Vivian.
XO, Kitty also stars Minyeong Choi (Dae), Gia Kim (Yuri), Sang Heon Lee (Min Ho), Anthony Keyvan (Q), Peter Thurnwald (Alex) with Yunjin Kim (Jina), Sarayu Blue (Trina), John Corbett (Dan Covey), Michael K Lee (Professor Lee), Jocelyn Shelfo (Madison) and Regan Aliyah (Juliana).
The 10-episode series premieres May 18.
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