Charlie Hunnam Breaks Some Bad News to ‘Sons of Anarchy’ Fans

Shantaram could not be more different than Sons of Anarchy, but when Apple TV+ announced the show’s premiere date, the accompanying picture showed Charlie Hunnam on a motorcycle. This might have been an attempt to lead Hunnam’s fans into thinking his character, Lin Ford, was anything like Jax Teller. That is not the case though, as Hunnam recently told Entertainment Weekly that Shantaram is “radically different” from the show that made him a star.

“I thought that was very cheeky that Apple released that image as the first image,” Hunnam told the magazine. The actor said he only appears on a motorcycle in the show for about “two minutes maximum” during the 12-hour show. “SoI hope people don’t get too excited thinking that this is some sort of Sons of Anarchy in India because that’s not what we’re delivering,” Hunnam said. “The show is so radically different and the characters are so radically different.”

Shantaram is based on the novel by Gregory David Roberts and centers on Lin Ford, a fugitive who runs to 1980s Bombay in the hopes of avoiding more trouble. There, he meets a mysterious woman, forcing Lin to choose between love and freedom. Steve Lightfoot and Eric Warren Singer (Top Gun: Maverick) created the series. Justin Kurzel, who previously directed Hunnam in True History of the Kelly Gang, helmed the first two episodes.

Although Hunnam has made several movies since Sons of Anarchy ended, Shantaram is his first regular TV series role since 2014. He is excited for audiences to see the next phase of his career. “I was really a kid when I started Sons, although that grew into feeling quite proud of some of the work that I did in the later seasons,” he told EW. “I’m just a different person now. I’m north of 40 now, and I’ve been taking stock of who I am and who I would like to be, and the work that I do is certainly an element of that.”

Hunnam is immensely proud of his work on Shantaram, adding that he has “never worked as hard on anything as I’ve worked on this.” He is “nervous and just really excited to see what the reaction will be.” The actor is also hopeful for a second season since Season 1 only covers about the first third of Roberts’ novel.

“We only get about a third into the text this season, so it really just sets up the world and the major players and some of the conflict,” he told EW. “If we’re lucky enough to get a second season, that is when that really will become the central story point. We take Lin into the world where he gets exposed to both of those elements, but the choice between the two, the conflict between the two, doesn’t really become apparent until later.” The first three episodes of Shantaram will be released on Oct. 14, then the remaining episodes will be released weekly through Dec. 16 on Apple TV+.