Negotiators from the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Hollywood studios will reconvene on Thursday in an attempt to find a resolution to the ongoing labor dispute. On Wednesday, the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), representing major media companies like Walt Disney and Netflix, had their first round of talks in roughly a month. In a joint statement issued early Wednesday evening, both parties simply confirmed that they had engaged in bargaining that day and would continue their discussions the following day.

Negotiations After Five Months

Disney CEO Bob Iger, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Comcast’s NBCUniversal Studio group chairman Donna Langley, and Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav attended the meeting on Wednesday to facilitate a potential agreement between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Hollywood studios.

Those present at the meeting described it as “promising,” and the four executives were expected to participate in further discussions on Thursday.

According to sources close to the negotiations cited by CNBC, writers and producers were nearing a consensus and were hopeful for a deal to be reached by Thursday.

If an agreement is not reached, CNBC reported that the strike could potentially extend until the end of the year.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) initiated the strike back in May, driven by unresolved issues concerning compensation, minimum staffing requirements for writers’ rooms, and the impact of artificial intelligence (AI), among other concerns.

Additionally, in July, the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union declared a work stoppage, resulting in Hollywood experiencing concurrent strikes for the first time in 63 years. Currently, there are no scheduled talks between the actors and the studios.