'Sons of Anarchy' Creator Kurt Sutter Speaks out About Opie and Jax Teller's Deaths

One of the presumptive highlights of life in quarantine, at least for Sons of Anarchy fans, is the [...]

By Christian Long

One of the presumptive highlights of life in quarantine, at least for Sons of Anarchy fans, is the fact that creator Kurt Sutter has been engaged with fans on social media for weeks, answering all sorts of lingering questions about the biker drama. While he's addressed issues like the meaning of the homeless woman and the fate of the family of Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), on March 31, he addressed which character's death hit him the most.

"Yeah. Pretty much all of them," Sutter explained. "I didn't enjoy killing my babies. But when you're telling stories that take place in an uber-violent world, dying is part of the truth." After admitting that all his characters' deaths were hard, he did specify the one that was the most difficult. "Killing off Opie f—ed me up for a while. As it did with most of the cast/crew. It was heavy."

The death of Opie (Ryan Hurst), stands out as one of the most heartbreaking moments in Sons of Anarchy's seven-season run. While several members of the club were incarcerated in Season 5, Opie was beaten to death as retribution by associates of Damon Pope (Harold Perrineau) in the episode "Laying Pipe." Sutter's musings about Opie's death echoed what he said in a 2018 interview with Variety.

"I loved the actor and the character, but the road we had taken him down was so heavy," Sutter explained at the time. "The amount of death and sense of betrayal, I just organically could not have that guy sit at the table with Clay. It just didn't make sense."

Sutter's tweet also included Jax's reaction to the moment when he was forced to watch along with other members of the club. The lead character himself perished in the closing moments of the series finale back in 2014, which the former showrunner also addressed. He also cleared up any confusion about the religious imagery layered throughout that pivotal scene. "If I hit you over the head any harder with Christian symbolism, the Vatican would've sued me for copyright infringement," he joked.

Sutter had also addressed the fate of Gemma, who was played by his real-life wife Katey Sagal. When asked if filming her character's death was difficult for him, Sutter sounded slightly less attached to his characters. "It was all make-believe," Sutter quipped. "Katey is at home right now. But thanks for looking out."

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