You Probably Won't Be Seeing the Sons of Anarchy on 'Mayans MC'

Four years after the Sons of Anarchy finale, show creator Kurt Sutter is back with the Mayans MC spinoff. Centered around Marcus Alvarez's Mexican motorcycle gang that was featured heavily in the original FX drama, the new series will follow EZ Reyes (played by actor JD Pardo) as a fresh-out-of-prison prospect hoping to join the outlaw crew. 

While the storyline and (some of the) characters might seem familiar, Kurt made it very clear that Mayans MC will not intersect with any of the SOA bikers — yet. "Right now, there is no intersecting stories. But Sons is a big world," he said during Comic Con 2018. "We’ll see those points of intersection this season and throughout the series as well."

He continued, "I want to acknowledge that world and find opportunities to circle that, but I don’t want to abuse it." 

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

As of right now, only one star of the SOA franchise is set to appear in Mayans MC — and it is none other than the matriarch herself, Gemma Teller Morrow. Appearing in a flashback scene (for obvious reasons), Gemma's presence is meant to highlight the Mayans presence in Stockton, a location many SOA fans will recognize. There will also be mention of Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) and the dramatic SOA finale woven into the Mayans storyline. 

"We’re going to play the reality of that last day and the events that happened with who he killed that day and the impact and perhaps the trickle down that may have had on Northern Cali," Kurt explained on Tom Arnold's podcast. "So it won’t have a direct impact on the Mayans but we make reference to it in the pilot so that we play the reality of it.

So unfortunately, viewers hoping to see a glimpse of Chibs (Tommy Flanagan) or Tig (Kim Coates) in their leather jackets will probably be disappointed. 

However, that does not mean it is the end of Sons of Anarchy. According to Kurt, he has hopes to add two more chapters to the MC's on-screen story. 

"I have a sense of Sons being four chapters. If Sons was the first chapter then I see the Mayans as the second chapter. It’s present day, it’s after the death of Jax Teller," he told Tom Arnold, who appeared in SOA as porn honcho Georgie Caruso, on his podcast. "I think at some point we’ll find a way to shine a little light perhaps on John Teller’s manuscript of the Mayans, if we’re lucky enough to continue, and then what I would do is, not directly, but I would use that as a potential launching point to do the prequel. 

"The First 9 — it would begin in Vietnam with John Teller and Piney Winston and it would be about them coming back to America — ideally to do each episode [with] a new member join[ing] but end it at the end of that so that maybe at that point Gemma’s there but it’s before Jax is born. I don’t want to step on the mythology that we know, but we kind of lay track to the beginning and then stop." 

And if all goes according to plan, a sequel starring Jax's sons Abel and Thomas, will also get the green light. "Perhaps thinking ahead at some point, if any of us are still alive, that there might be a series of events that takes us down the line into the future that perhaps sets up some kind of dynamic for Jax’s sons to become aware of who his dad was and things like that," Kurt added. "That for me is the dream quartet, if you will." 

It might be easy to assume that JD Pardo is following in Charlie Hunnam's footsteps, but the characters are actually completely different. "I had a loose parameter of what I wanted the show to be. A prospect, a guy that was not from the world," Kurt told Deadline of his new character. "No legacy like there was with Jax. EZ was supposed to have a completely different life. He was like the golden boy and that got taken away from him."

In real life, JD (who might recognize as Nahuel from Twilight), is half Argentinian, half El Salvadorian, and seemingly 100 percent single. 

Tune in to Mayans MC on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.