Kurt Sutter has left his new Netflix show, according to multiple media reports. The showrunner best known for creating “Sons of Anarchy” departed “The Abandons” three weeks before production was scheduled to wrap in Calgary.
The upcoming Western drama stars Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson. Its executive producer and director Otto Bathurst as well as its co-exec producer Rob Askins will oversee the rest of the shoot. No new showrunner has been named. It’s been reported that the departure came down to creative differences.
TheWrap reached out to Netflix and representatives for Sutter for comment.
Set in the 1850s, “The Abandons” follows Fiona Nolan (Headey), a devout Irish woman who is incapable of conceiving a child. Believing in a higher purpose, she tries to build a family by adopting four orphans. But it isn’t long before she begins to face hardship after European aristocrats claim possession of her new home in Oregon. In addition to Headey and Anderson, the series stars Lucas Till, Aisling Franciosi, Nick Robinson, Diana Silvers, Lamar Johnson and Natalia del Riego.
This isn’t the first time that Sutter has abruptly left one of his shows. In 2019, Sutter was fired from “Mayans M.C.” following complaints from cast and crew collected by the human resources department at Disney. This came shortly after Disney’s acquisition of FX, 20th Century Fox TV and Fox 21 TV Studios.
A spinoff of “Sons of Anarchy” created by Sutter and Elgin James, the biker drama was the most recent FX series to come from the showrunner. Sutter also previously created “Sons of Anarchy” and “The Bastard Executioner” for FX and worked on the cable network’s first breakout hit, “The Shield.” In his letter about his firing, Sutter called out Disney Entertainment chairman Dana Walden and FX head John Landgraf by name.
“What pisses me off, what hurts the most, is that John Landgraf and Dana Walden sat across from me and cited a summary of a slanted truth formulated by lawyers and clerks,” Sutter wrote at the time. “The truth is, the suits wanted me gone. I stepped on toes and bruised egos. And in this Disney regime, I’m dangerous to the wholesome brand. And clearly not worth the trouble. So 18 years of friendship, loyalty and producing quality television, was flushed down the drain. They threw me under the f–king bus.”
Deadline was the first to report this story.
