'Sons of Anarchy' Creator Kurt Sutter Ponders How 'Mayans M.C.' Will Handle the Coronavirus Pandemic

Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter was asked how he thinks Mayans M.C. will handle the [...]

Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter was asked how he thinks Mayans M.C. will handle the coronavirus pandemic, and the pondering creator certainly had some thoughts. During a conversation with Deadline, Sutter was asked, "What will be the biggest challenges in working in this new normal?" He replied, "I'd like to talk about the creative first."

Sutter continued, "I'll talk all about what I think those points of contact are and the adjustments that need to be made. But I think the bigger issue, almost is from a creative standpoint. How do you address it? Because you don't want to hit people over the head with it, right? They've just come out of it. They don't want to be overwhelmed with it, but you can't ignore it, right? It would be disrespectful to the people who have suffered loss. I think initially, especially with shows that are, you know, present-day, it's going to be a challenge. I don't know how Elgin [James, his Mayans M.C. co-creator] is going to do it with Mayans. It's a tricky thing."

The next big question Sutter offered was, "How does it impact that world, and how do you maintain the energy creatively and acknowledge it? My sense is that it'll most likely need to be a light touch, right? Like, you'll need to see the awareness of it in terms of public and without it necessarily being the driving force and story. I think that there's a real creative challenge in how to address it in shows, because we've never had to really do that before."

Sutter then went on to compare the scenario to another major event that deeply impacted America. "Even 9/11, if you had a show that wasn't impacted by some sort of security risk, you didn't really have to address it, and it wasn't disrespectful," he said. "But this is something that has affected the planet. You have to acknowledge it, but it has to sort of be a light touch, and I think that's going to be a really tricky thing creatively. And that might ultimately be the bigger issue than any of the product."

Notably, Sutter co-created Mayans M.C., as it is a spinoff off Sons of Anarchy, but he is no longer part of the show's day-to-day production. Sutter was fired by FX in 2019 after allegations emerged regarding his on-set behavior. However, Sutter has questioned the validity of those claims, saying instead that he believes his firing was motivated after Disney bought Fox and Sutter wrote a joke about Walt Disney into one of the episodes.

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