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.”

Neither the WGAW, HBO, nor reps for the recently Gersh signed McKellar or Park responded to Deadline’s request for comment tonight on the just announced expulsions.

With pencils quickly down, the WGA and its just over 25,000 membership went on strike two years ago from May 2 to September 27 before approving a deal with the studios and streamers. With some overlap with the WGA, the 160,00 member strong SAG-ACTRA went on strike from July 14 to November 9, 2023 before coming to an agreement with AMPTP.

Delayed to some degree like pretty much everything during those hard weeks and months, the seven-episode The Sympathizer debuted on the premium cabler on April 14, 2024, with showrunners Park and McKellar receiving writing credits for the whole Vietnam War centered show. Playing five different roles, sometimes on screen together, Oscar winner Downey was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at the 76th Primetime Emmys, with the win going to Lamorne Morris for Fargo.

Since The Sympathizer, Park and McKellar have also worked together on the script for the Park helmed upcoming black comedy No Other Choice, which is set to debut in Venice later this month.

Recommended to the WGA Board by the Strike Rules Compliance Committee, the expulsions for far from newbie members Park and McKellar will have little to no effect with No Other Choice. Yet, what this means for the careers of McKellar and Park in Tinseltown going forward doesn’t look good. Sure, the South Korean-born director and the Canadian-born McKellar have the ability to work in the global market, but now they’ve lost the ability to work for Disney, HBO, Netflix and other companies that are signatories to the WGA’s collective bargaining agreement.

Today’s announcement on the hammer coming down on Park and McKellar, who are clearly not appealing or hence disputing the allegations of writing while their fellow members were out of work and/or on the picket lines, comes just over a few months after the WGA made public some other expulsions and disciplinary measures against others. Back in early April and naming names, the Guild announced disciplinary action against six members for alleged unauthorized work during the union’s 2023 strike, as well as one additional member for an alleged violation of the guild’s constitution.

With today’s expulsion of McKellar and Park, plus the action against Cipriano, the WGA says “there are no further strike related disciplines and all Article X proceedings arising from the 2023 strike have concluded.”

To that, according to the WGA constitution, “no suspended or expelled member may be readmitted to membership in the Guild except by action of the Board, which may assess a fine and/or other conditions before readmission.”