At the final ‘Sons of Anarchy’ panel at San Diego Comic Con on Sunday, creator Kurt Sutter revealed talks are ongoing about a prequel for the series, a new book being released and watched as he received a standing ovation from a loud and raucous crowd in attendance….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
The final Sons of Anarchy panel at San Diego Comic Con came with exclusive footage from season 7 as well as an emotional goodbye from the cast and crew as well as creator Kurt Sutter.
‘Sons of Anarchy’ remains one of the real outlaw dramas on television, never bowing down to conventional standards and often times giving a rather large middle finger to award shows that refuse to recognize the most popular show in the history of FX. The panel on Sunday was no different with the cast bantering back and forth with more than a few words being dropped that wouldn’t even be appropriate on FX.
Following an introduction and a round of questions for the cast, Sutter introduced the first footage from the final season, which was a montage of all the characters two weeks after the death of Tara Knowles. Without giving away any spoilers, there was definitely a dark and somber tone to the first few minutes while the background was filled with the song ‘Never My Love’ being covered by ‘Sons’ regular contributor Audra Mae (which we assume will be released ahead of the September 9 season premiere, and trust us it’s amazing).
The scene was applauded by all those in attendance and moments later executive producer Paris Barclay expressed his admiration for Sutter after choosing to hire each and every person on the panel, giving all of them a chance to work on such an amazing show. The moment brought Sutter to tears as the entire crowd in the famous Hall H gave a standing ovation. Sutter was clearly moved by the gesture, but quickly snapped back into mode telling everyone to ‘sit the fuck down, I’ve got an image’ as the audience laughed in unison.
“We’re just one big fucked up family,” Sutter said. “This is such a bittersweet experience, I prefer living in denial and I hate shit like this because it makes it difficult. I love everyone at this table, I have an amazing crew. The thing I’m most grateful for, I walk through our set, and everybody wants to be there and everyone is grateful and everyone wants the show to work so that’s the gift for me.”
As far as the news that came out of the hour-long panel, Sutter did reveal that ‘Sons of Anarchy’ will debut its first novel later this year to help add to the mythology of the series, which has become a global phenomenon. The book is expected to be released in fall 2014.
“This is our first full Sons of Anarchy novel — it’s called ‘Bratva’,” Sutter stated. “I wanted to find something that lives in our mythology that you all know and loved and didn’t necessarily impact the things that need to happen, so the story takes place after season four and it follows Jax, Opie and Chibs who get into some really gnarly things with the Russians, and the Russian crew is called Bravta. It’s the characters you know and love, in the world you know and love, and it’s a completely different story.”
In addition to the novel, Sutter also confirmed that there are still plans in place for a ‘Sons of Anarchy’ prequel to happen after the finale airs later this year, but it’s not likely to go into production for at least a couple of years. Sutter already has his next show in place as he will begin working on ‘The Bastard Executioner’ in early 2015, but he will eventually return to the ‘Sons’ prequel assuming everything is green lit at FX.
Given the huge numbers and attraction the show carries with audiences, there’s very little chance FX wouldn’t want another run with ‘Sons of Anarchy’ again.
“To me the most interesting thing about our mythology is the origins,” Sutter said. “Because we don’t do any flashbacks on our show, the prequel will be about the origins with John Teller and Piney Winston and my sense right now, I don’t know if it will be a full on series or a mini-series but our hope is we let the mythology rest for a couple of seasons and then come back and do the prequel. We’re having conversations about that.”
The crowd was at a fevered pitch by the end of the panel as the cast stood tall for the last time before ‘Sons of Anarchy’ wraps up its seven season run later this year.
