It looks likeKurt Sutterhas just lined up his next series, courtesy of Netflix. TheSons of AnarchyandMayans M.C.co-creator has struck a deal with Netflix to create a new western series calledThe Abandons. The plan is for the series to consist of hourlong episodes that come with all of the gritty action we’ve come to expect from Sutter’s stories, but this time set in the Old West.
This follows a previous deal withNetflixthat will see Sutter direct the upcoming period movieThis Beast, further expanding his relationship with the streaming service. The idea he’s had forThe Abandonsactually predatesSons of Anarchyand Sutter’s other most famous television work, so it’s a bit of a passion project that’s finally coming to fruition. Sutter spoke about the new series in a recent chat with Deadline.
“I’ve always wanted to do a western, even beforeSons, and thenDeadwoodcame out,” he said. “There’s that great lore of Ian Anderson wanting to be a great rock guitarist, and he saw Clapton play, and he said, ‘F*ck, I’m going to become the best rock flautist that ever lived.’ And he did just that for Jethro Tull. This is how I felt when I sawDeadwood. I said, ‘Let me stick to the crime genre’ and then used just about every actor that was on that show. But I do love the genre.”
“I’ve always been fascinated with the origins of La Cosa Nostra, how these Sicilian peasant families were being more than marginalized by the land barons and the aristocrats,” TheSons of Anarchycreator added. “These families banded together to defend themselves from these abusive land barons, and from that taking those matters into their own hands, La Cosa Nostra was born and became the authority and the law and the order of the land.”
On his other influences for this show, Sutter said, “Over the pandemic, I was watching reruns ofBonanza, and first of all, it completely holds up. I remember watching it as a kid, but I just remember there’s an episode where somebody gets killed, and Hoss just wants revenge, and I mean, like, dark f*cking revenge. Ultimately, it’s a Sunday network TV ending, but I just realized that the Cartwrights were a bullet away from being outlaws, right? And I loved that it all came from that deep sense of loyalty to the family, the land, the town. Those were the origins of this, with the working titleThe Abandons.”
Kurt Sutter also weighed in on thetragic accident that left Halyna Hutchins deadon the set ofRustin October. He says how he’s never had an incident on any of his sets because they “always followed protocol.” Even so, Sutter is willing to abide by any new safety regulations that come about as a result of theRustincident, whether that comes down to rubber guns. The investigation is still underway on the shooting and the longtime ramifications it will leave on the industry remain to be seen.
It’s unclear whenThe Abandonswill start production or arrive on Netflix. This news comes to us fromDeadline.
