SONS OF ANARCHY: Kurt Sutter On Why He Wants 7 Seasons

Sons Of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter reflects on the show’s recently concluded fourth season and elaborates on his desire to have at least 7 seasons to tell his story.

On why leaving Clay alive (by the conclusion of Season 4) will pave the way for potent overarching story:

As the stories developed, we got a sense that, at least with Tara, that we weren’t going to kill Tara. I’m all about surprising, and I have no problem killing off main characters, but I also have to protect the show and I think it would be very difficult for us to continue with Jax and tell that story without Tara, so I knew that that wasn’t going to happen. Sometimes, whacking somebody is just too easy. To me, it’s a much more complex and interesting story to take away the thing that defined Tara – her being a healer. What happens when you take that away? Where is Tara? What does she become? Same thing with Clay. It would’ve been way too easy for Jax to have that reveal about his father that we’ve been playing with for four seasons now, and then have Jax kill Clay, two scenes later. To me, it’s a much more interesting story to have that awareness and play that out for a couple of seasons. I keep using this example, but what I’m stealing from is The Shield, when we had Vic (Michael Chiklis) become aware that Shane (Walton Goggins) was the one who killed Lem (Kenny Johnson). We had that awareness happen, and then we got to play that out for a season and a half, where these guys loathed each other and wanted each other dead and felt this enormous sense of betrayal, and yet had to suit up and go to work with each other every day, living with this secret. We get to play that out now with Jax and Clay. I just think that’s great turf for potent storytelling. Quite frankly, I want to see what it looks like, for a season or two, to have these guys aware of this now, rather than just have the reveal and have him avenge it. It’s really about just wanting to create more territory for story.

On what Season 5 has in store for Gemma:

I think the interesting thing, with this season, if you really look at the dynamic, is that it’s this world about the men, but more often than not, we see it through the window of the women. We see Clay through the window of Gemma because she’s the one that knows his secrets. We see Jax’s through the window of Tara, which is why I ended it the way I did. Ultimately, we’re viewing this world through the eyes of the women. I think it’ll be an interesting season, for the two of them. I think Gemma makes this decision, at the end of Season 4, that’s somewhat hasty, but she’s a survivalist, and she wasn’t going to throw away 20 years of work. I don’t think Gemma will be usurped, and Tara is not Gemma. She’s not there yet. Not that I’m going to take a step back and bring her back to the wavering Tara that’s she’s been, to a certain extent, but I think she will have her struggles, in that role. I don’t think the struggle will be, “Am I in, or am I out?” I think the struggle will be, “How do I stay who I am and navigate in this world?” It’s not unlike the way Jax has struggled, over the last few seasons. I don’t think that Tara has the capacity, if push came to shove, to put a bullet in someone’s head, as I think Gemma could do, without giving it a second thought, and then go hit Starbucks on the way home.

On the struggle of balancing commerce and art in relation to wrapping up the series

It’s always the struggle. I’m very aware that I’m writing a show for TV, so I do want to write storylines that are rich and complex, and characters that are three-dimensional, and we do have actors that give tremendous performances. But, there’s an element of the show that’s incredible pulpy and very entertaining. To me, that’s as important as the rich, deep character stuff. I’ve no desire to run a show that only a couple hundred thousand people watch. If I want that kind of audience, I’ll go do theater. So, it is important to me to keep the show fun and entertaining, and I think that’s what frustrates viewers sometimes. In terms of the fan base and seven seasons, I threw out the seven-season milestone just because that was my experience on The Shield, in terms of when the above-the-line costs become too much. I knew I could tell the story I wanted to tell in a seven-season arc, and I’m hoping we manage to have that length of time to do that. If, for some reason, FX came to me, or 20^th came to me, and said, “We can go two more seasons,” I would have to get that information before Episode 710, to figure that out. But, I’d be open to exploring that.

Source: Collider

SOA continues 2012 for a fifth season on FX

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