'Sons of Anarchy': How Kurt Sutter Discovered Charlie Hunnam's Work

For a lot of fans, Sons of Anarchy wouldn't have worked without Charlie Hunnam. The British actor [...]

By Christian Long

For a lot of fans, Sons of Anarchy wouldn't have worked without Charlie Hunnam. The British actor played Jax Teller on all seven seasons of the bikes-and-bullets crime drama, and on May 5, former showrunner Kurt Sutter explained what led him to his casting. After being asked by a fan if it was Hunnam's work in Green Street Hooligans, Sutter confirmed that to be the case.

"Yes. [Lexi Alexander's] powerful Green Street Hooligans was the first I saw of Charlie's work," Sutter wrote. "His performance was brutally raw. I saw the very rare mix of danger and vulnerability that I knew Jax needed. I had no idea where Charlie was or what he was doing. Fate rolled my way — he was in L.A. focusing on his writing. After several meetings, we were all on the same page. And Jax came to life."

Green Street Hooligans was a 2005 drama co-written and directed by Alexander, which follows an American named Max (Elijah Wood) as he travels to London and is introduced to the world of football hooliganism through Pete (Hunnam). As the film shows, the practice of hooliganism involves disorderly, violent or destructive behavior of allied gangs, known as firms across the pond, who attack fans of rival football teams.

Back on April 28, Sutter told another fan via social media that he'd work with Hunnam again "in a heartbeat." While the character of Jax was killed off in the closing moments of the SoA series finale, in a very biblical way, the showrunner is looking for something entirely different to collaborate with the actor on. "I'd love to find the right project. Something that would stretch the both of us. And that's not too reminiscent of SoA."

Sutter, meanwhile, has a couple of projects he's been working on in-between marathon Q&A sessions with fans. Mack in March, he announced that he'd finished a pilot for a new potential series that he described as "an anthology" that's "driven by music." However, he added that the current pandemic has put the show "in limbo" for now.

He is, however, planning to revive his old web series WTF Sutter. "As soon as [the] pandemic lifts, I'm going to do a new web series, Sutter Thinks," he revealed. "We were into preproduction talks before the shutdown. Hopefully, it will still make sense to do it."

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