‘Sons of Anarchy’: Jax’s Fate Wasn’t Always Certain, Kurt Sutter Says

Kurt Sutter continues to give Sons of Anarchy a ton of material to work with while stuck in quarantine. The creator of the hit FX series has kept fans of the show busy over the past few weeks hosting various open forums while providing some clarity to some of the biggest storylines and twists-and-turns in the series’ seven-season run.

In one of his latest responses, Sutter touched on his leading character and the fate he met. While previously discussing the relationship between Jax Teller and his mother, whom ultimately met her fate at the hands of her son, Sutter was asked if Jax’s destiny was always heading down the road it went in the series finale. It turns out that Sutter wasn’t always sure Jax would have to die until much later in the series. “I wasn’t sure until the end of Season 6 when Tara met her end,” Sutter explained. “I knew it would lead to Gemma’s ultimate fate and when that happened, there was only one option for Jax.”

In revealing the details about Jax’s death and how it came about, some of his followers were excited to learn of the decision. Others were encouraged to go rewatch the series. “This just promoted me to put a rewatch of the series on the top of my list,” one user responded. “I bet it’s even better the second time around.” Another follower told Sutter that it was a “beautiful piece of organic storytelling.”

After that question, Sutter responded to another fan of the show who wondered what his favorite to deaths write were. After seeing this response, it makes sense that Sutter would take credit for the amount of work that went into the groundwork laid out in plotting Jax’s story arc. “[It] had to be Gemma and Jax,” Sutter responded. “They were the most emotionally profound and narratively justified.”

In a question from last week, Sutter was asked why Jax followed through with his decision to kill himself on the highway in a manner similar to his father’s. “I think so many things factored into that fateful decision. Tara, Gemma, His father, the club… But mostly it was about ending the lineage of Tellers being associated with the outlaw life,” he replied. “The mayhem had to end with him. He did not want his sons to follow in his path.”