Kurt Sutter’s bloody and expensive follow-up to Sons of Anarchy, The Bastard Executioner, is done after one disappointing season. The fire-breathing Sutter of a few years ago would have grabbed a prop sword and started swinging at whichever executive tried to take his show away from him, but he’s older and more mature now. Sutter took out an ad in several publications that thanked Bastard‘s cast and crew that read, “The audience has spoken and unfortunately the word is, ‘meh.’ So, with due respect, we bring our mythology to an epic and fiery close.” Sutter elaborated to the Hollywood Reporter.
I didn’t get the official word [that it was being canceled], but I knew enough numerically that we weren’t doing well. To me, the most heartbreaking part was that there really was a sense of everyone being excited to tell more stories. I don’t necessarily think that’s usually the vibe on a show that’s not doing well. So this was about letting folks know what a great experience I had, and how proud I was of them. (Via the Hollywood Reporter)
Sutter thinks “the mythology was a little too dense for some people,” and when asked why he pulled the plug on his own show, he replied, “I didn’t want to string the cast along. I just think it’s unfair when that happens, when people don’t find out for another three months whether they have a job in May. To me, the way we are handling it… is the way it should be done.”
After decent numbers for the premiere, Bastard (which should make you appreciate Game of Thrones that much more — fantasy isn’t easy to pull off) dropped to 1.9 million viewers for episode six. Only one episode of Sons of Anarchy in its seven-season run did worse. That’s not good.
Freed from the obligation of slaving over which song Katey Sagal should sing this week, Sutter will work on a screenplay, Delivering Gen, and find someone to write his Sons of Anarchy spin-off about the Mayans. Details are still scarce, but he joked, “It’s contemporary — and there are no horses involved.”
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)
