Sons of Anarchy creator exits new Netflix series with just weeks left of filming

New Western series ‘The Abandons’ stars Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey

Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter has exited his new Netflix series just weeks before production was scheduled to wrap.

Filming on the forthcoming Western series, appropriately titled The Abandons, began in May in Alberta, Canada, and is scheduled to conclude in mid-October.

Variety reports that Sutter’s premature exit came due to creative differences with Netflix. The publication reports that various changes to the series were made by Netflix, such as the number of episodes being reduced from 10 to eight, after the production went over budget.

Netflix declined to comment. The Independent has contacted Sutter’s representatives.

Starring Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey as two mothers in a bloody feud, The Abandons was originally greenlit by Netflix in October 2022.

Kurt Sutter is known for creating ‘Sons of Anarchy’ (Getty Images)

An official logline for the show reads: “As a group of diverse, outlier families pursue their Manifest Destiny in 1850s Oregon, a corrupt force of wealth and power, coveting their land, tries to force them out. These abandoned souls, the kind of lost souls living on the fringe of society, unite their tribes to form a family and fight back. In this bloody process, ‘justice’ is stretched beyond the boundaries of the law.”

The show was created by Sutter, 64, who also served as executive producer and showrunner.

Speaking to Netflix’s Tudum in May about the creation of the show, he said: “I am fascinated by the metamorphosis of good into evil.

“What must transpire to drive the morally sound to become the dangerously corrupt. The Abandons explores those complex compromises through the most powerful human instinct – the love and protection of mothers.”

This isn’t the first time Sutter has abruptly departed a project. Back in 2019, Sutter was fired from his FX drama Mayans MC after parent company Disney’s human resources department compiled a number of complaints from the cast and crew.

Sutter later addressed his firing in a letter obtained by Deadline, writing: “They claim the intel suggests that I created a climate of hostility, favoritism and enabled a set where no one felt safe or appreciated.”

Denying these claims, he continued: “I know that’s not true. I’m not saying it was all sunshine and roses, but I’m close with most of those guys and they love going to work. I’m also not sure how, having been on set… maybe three times all season, I was able to singularly create that much damage.

“What I do own, what I see now in hindsight, is that detaching myself so much this season was a mistake. I understand how it was perceived as me sticking my head in the sand. And that people felt like no one was steering the ship,” Sutter added.

“But that wasn’t a management error on my part, it was a creative decision to empower [co-creator] Elgin [James] and the future of the show.”