Sons of Anarchy will end after season seven. Creator Kurt Sutter confirmed the news in a post-session interview at the summer press tour. SOA already has been renewed through season six, and Sutter earlier this year inked an overall deal with FX.
“We have a sense of it playing out in seven [seasons], he said. “At this point, which is not outside the realm of possibility, I think I’d really have to f— things up not to get seven seasons.”
Kurt Sutter: The One Is Tragic, the Billion Are Not
Sutter said he’s not in active talks with the network about a SOA prequel but added: “I’d love the idea of a period piece as a prequel. I think [FX is] interested in expanding the property and doing other things.”
During the SOA panel, Sutter explained that season five is “really the first season I’ve had to have a very clear sense of what my endgame is.”
The fifth season premieres Sept. 11 and will pick up only about a month after the season four finale that saw Clay (Ron Perlman) being shot and then ousted as president of SAMCRO and Jax (Charlie Hunnam) taking his place at the head of the table. This season, Gemma (Katey Sagal) will get a new love interest in the form of gang member Nero Padilla (Jimmy Smits).
Of course, violence can be indiscriminate in the Shakespearean world of SOA, and Sutter, who is married to Sagal, said the only truly essential character is Jax.
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“My sense of where the show will end up includes Jax and perhaps Gemma and Clay,” he said. “I don’t think the show continues without Jax because I believe in his journey. This season I have to write to that endgame; the stakes get higher, the circumstances get more dire, the wreckage gets deeper — and as a result, things will change. I don’t know how it all will fall apart, but eventually it will. The show is the prince’s journey. There is no show without Jax.”
Also joining the cast this season are Ashley Tisdale as an escort, Harold Perrineau as a former drug kingpin who clashes with Jax and real-life biker-turned-actor Chuck Zito, who in 2010 sued FX for $5 million claiming the network stole his idea for a similar biker show.
“After the suit got thrown out, we sat down and had lunch, and I realized he was a superfan,” said Sutter, noting that Zito arrived at lunch in a SAMCRO “cut” that he got from Charlie Sheen.
Email: Marisa.Guthrie@thr.com; Twitter: @MarisaGuthrie
