‘Sons of Anarchy’: Kurt Sutter Had Two Other Spinoff Ideas Besides ‘Mayans MC’
Writer/director Kurt Sutter is perhaps best known for creating the series Sons of Anarchy, which ran for seven seasons on FX. Sutter also worked on the spinoff series Mayans MC, which follows another motorcycle club in the same universe as Sons. Although they have yet to come to fruition, Sutter had several other ideas for spinoff shows besides Mayans MC.
‘Mayans MC’ just wrapped its fourth season
Following the popularity of Sons of Anarchy, Kurt Sutter co-created a spinoff series titled Mayans MC with Elgin James. The new series followed the Mayans Motorcycle Club, which frequently interacted with the Sons in the original series. The spinoff brought back several characters from Sons of Anarchy, and recently released its fourth season.
In October 2019, Disney fired Sutter from his position on Mayans MC, reportedly over complaints from the cast and crew. Showrunner responsibilities for seasons 3 and 4 were then handed over to Elgin James. Mayans MC is still going strong and it seems likely that the show will be renewed for a fifth season.
The ‘Sons of Anarchy’ spinoff ‘First Nine’ was put on hold indefinitely after Kurt Sutter was fired
Back in 2014, Sutter revealed to Nerdcore Movement that he planned to create a Sons of Anarchy prequel series. This show, titled First 9, would follow the story of the founding members of SAMCRO. These nine men, including John Teller, Clay Morrow, and Piney Winston, founded the Club after serving overseas together in Vietnam.
Unfortunately, after Sutter’s falling out with Disney, the possibility of this spinoff coming to fruition seems unlikely, as he explained to Deadline in 2019. “As of now, the possibility of doing that doesn’t look that hopeful. It’s their property. They’re not going to let me take it somewhere else. Right now, that relationship is in flux,” he told the outlet.
“As for how far it got, here’s what I knew I wanted to do. I knew it wasn’t a long series, that I wanted to do a limited series. Ideally, it was nine of ten episodes. The model I love is the Sherlock model. I love the idea of doing four two-hour episodes. The way I write, the episodes are way longer than they are supposed to be anyway. So that to me would have been ideal.”
Sutter added, “To do four movies basically and tell a story that starts in Vietnam with John Teller and Piney and taking it through the last of the first nine members of the club to show up. Which was Clay. And then ending it there. I didn’t want to f*** with the mythology that we had laid down. I just wanted to tell the story with the loose pieces we already had.”
Kurt Sutter explains his idea for ‘Sam Crow’
Kurt Sutter had a final idea for a Sons of Anarchy spinoff that may not be as well known as the other two concepts. In April 2020, Sutter wrote on Twitter, “I had this realization between SOA and Mayans that the SOA mythology would be 4 shows: Sons of Anarchy, Mayans MC, First Nine, and Sam Crow.”
“First Nine would be a limited series. Nine episodes. I would end before we began to tread on history we created in Sons. Sam Crow would be the fate of Wendy, Nero, Abel, and Thomas. I can’t discuss my current situation with Fox, so right now I can’t comment on the reality of any of this happening.”
All episodes of Sons of Anarchy are currently streaming on Hulu.
