Less than a month away from the Mayans MC series premiere, FX is introducing the show’s main characters. Monday night, the show’s official Twitter account introduced Clayton Cardenas‘ character Angel Reyes, the older brother of the Sons of Anarchy spinoff’s main character, EZ Reyes.
Anything for the club. @cardenasclayton is Angel. #MayansFX pic.twitter.com/SLeCwJAl1o
— Mayans MC (@MayansFX) August 13, 2018
In an animated illustration of Angel showing off a large Mayans tattoo that runs along his arm, the show wrote, “Anything for the club. [Clayton Cardenas] is Angel.”
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The show has teased other actors and characters in other similar season premiere promo clips, including Michael Irby as Obispo “Bishop” Losa (the president of the Mayans MC Santo Padre Charter), Danny Pino as Miguel Galindo, Carla Baratta as Adelita, and JD Pardo as EZ Reyes.
In addition, Mayans MC will also star Edward James Olmos as EZ and Angel’s father, as well as Emilio Rivera, who will reprise his role of Marcus Alvarez, President of the Mayans MC Oakland Charter, which he originated on Sons of Anarchy.
Olmos recently opened up about the series during a Television Critics Association press panel, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
“This show is going to move the needle. We’re more than 22% of the population and less than 4% of the images onscreen,” Olmos said of the mostly Latino cast. “We are in a very difficult time. This thing is going to shoot us right through the roof.”
The series will follow EZ (Pardo) and his brother and father (Cardenas, Olmos) as the focal point of the series, on par with Sons of Anarchy‘s Jax Teller and his family. According to a synopsis from IMDB for the first episode of Mayans MC, “EZ’s fate is in flux as the M.C. and the cartel find a common adversary.”
Created by SOA originator Kurt Sutter, Mayans MC was also co-created by former hardcore punk-musician Elgin James, who Sutter says helps legitimize the show and make it stand on its own as a Latino series instead of an imprint of SOA.
“My job is to transition the mythology from Sons and honor that,” Sutter said, according to Deadline. “We want to acknowledge where we came from and those fans and balance that with a show that’s original and different and doesn’t feel like a Latino version of Sons of Anarchy.”
He also joked that the plan is to “get the white guy out of the room as quickly as possible,” referring to himself co-creating a show with a majority Latino cast.
Sutter added that James “ethnically represents everyone in the audience” and understands outlaws and survival.
James addressed the idea of Latinos commonly depicted as criminals on TV.
“It’s something I’ve thought about a lot, especially since I grew up in a world of gangs and violence and it was something I said I never wanted to do once I became an artist,” he said at the TCA panel. “And then realizing that’s exactly what I have to do as an artist as opposed to pretend it doesn’t exist.”
“A lot of the people on [Mayans MC] behind the camera and in front of the camera grew up in the cycle of poverty and violence and incarceration — I know that I did,” James went on to say. “To be honest, I couldn’t write on The Cosby Show. . . but I do know that I have these stories I want to tell. I have this damage inside me that I have to get out.”
Fans can catch all the action and drama when Mayans MC premieres on Tuesday, Sept. 4 on FX.
