Titmouse Canada Goes Union Which Should Be The Beginning Of The End Of Animation Being Made In Canada

The producers behind CBS All Access Star Trek: Lower Decks has voted to unionize and join Animation Guild, IATSE Local 938 which is now Canada’s first union studio, though the studio expects to go after other Canadian studios.

Our Take

With a second season of Star Trek: Lower Decks in production, here’s hoping it can wrap quickly because when a union shows up, bad things happen. We’ve already seen other LA-based franchises like BoJack Horseman get cancelled largely due to rising production costs that were coming by way of the unions, which is largely the reason why you see a ground swell of post-production work not take place in Los Angeles, instead leaving those responsibilities to go to Canada, Korea, and France. Doing so keeps the cost of the series low and more likely to be renewed.

Titmouse is one of the premiere studios in the world and they make some of the best original content. One of those series, Venture Bros., was just canceled, due to high production costs. And although there is hope that some sort of specials could come on the way, this article from NPR isn’t all that hopeful of any actual seasons being ordered which is the same fate that other Titmouse series like Superjail, Metalocalypse, and China IL have gone through despite the fact that each of those series received critical and fan acclaim. The future of Star Trek: Lower Decks could come into question as a result. Creator Mike McMahan probably experienced something similar when Rick and Morty went union which caused the show (and former CEO Dan Harmon) to depart Starburns Industries as the studio in favor of Green Portal Productions and Canada’s Bardel handling the animation duties.

Unions might be great for independent contractors, but in the world of animation, are usually the death knell for animated series. Canada might be seeing a mass of unemployment in the animation sector if this IATSE grab is to continue. Lots of studios open, but few projects being sent there as a result.