WELCOME
Newsstand cover: Ruven Afanador. Background digital imaging: Jacey. Editor’s photo: Marco Vittur
LET’S GET THE big thing out the way up front. Since we started putting this issue of Empire together, words I never imagined myself typing have come to pass: Hollywood has shut down. Stalled. Imploded. Collapsed. Frankly, no word is too dramatic, because every member of the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America has gone on strike, protesting unfair treatment on a number of issues, from decreased residuals to the threat of artificial intelligence. With studios and streamers failing to meet their demands, a full-on civil war has broken out, and much of the movie and TV industry as we know it has gone silent.