Kurt Sutter: The Executioner's Song

Being a Sons of Anarchy fan, I'm still reeling and trying to recover after this week's sixth season finale - fear not, no spoilers lurk here. But let's just say there have been some major, major events on the show this year, stuff I would have never imagined creator Kurt Sutter dishing out until next years' seventh and final season. But Sutter doesn't shy away from anything, and this year he's written nearly every episode of Sons and whenever I see his name in the writing credits, I feel I ought to swallow and brace myself for what's coming. He's given us a riveting, brutal and anything but safe season, probably the series' best to date, and that's saying a lot. A lot of gasping and shouting at the TV set in our house.


Almost immediately after the finale aired, official word came of Sutter's post Sons plans, once he wraps up the series in 2014 - and are they ever exciting plans. With his work on The Shield and Sons, Sutter clearly has Keys to the Kingdom status over at FX Network. So when Imagine Entertainment's Brian Grazer brought his idea of a Medieval knight turned executioner in the era of Edward III, FX immediately thought of Sutter as the man to bring The Bastard Executioner to life. Bastard Executioner tells the story of a warrior knight in the service of King Edward III who is broken by the ravages of war and vows to lay down his sword. But when violence finds him again he is forced to pick up the bloodiest sword of all. “I love the network. I love the world. I love the blood,” Sutter said. The pilot is expected to film late next year after wrapping the final episodes of SOA.

“For 13 years at FX, starting as a writer and working his way up to an executive producer on The Shield, then as Creator/Executive Producer of Sons Of Anarchy, Kurt has interwoven literary and pulp storytelling within two of the most successful series in cable history,” said FX Networks CEO John Landgraf. “Now he has conceived a deep, provocative and historically precise narrative journey into our medieval past — and I have no doubt Bastard Executioner will be another remarkably original and gripping series. We’re also thrilled to be in business with Brian Grazer, one of the most gifted film and TV producers in the business.” Clearly visions of Game of Thrones audience addiction are dancing in their heads at FX, after all - aren't SAMCRO bikers just outlaw knights of a different era?

“I find the executioner to be an incredibly fascinating and provocative character,” said Grazer. “He deals with the highest order and the lowest order in the culture. It’s about as morally complex a profession as you can imagine, and it is going to make for a spellbinding series.” Grazer pitched the concept to 20th Century Fox co-chairs Dana Walden and Gary Newman, then Sutter created a whole canvas around the idea and they took it to FX, who bought it instantly. “It was our great pleasure to introduce Kurt to Brian Grazer, who is a powerful force in our industry and a great champion of breakthrough films and television shows like Imagine’s own 24 and Arrested Development,” Walden and Newman said. “Kurt and Brian together will be unstoppable.”