Kurt Sutter Cancels ‘The Bastard Executioner’ After One Season, Freeing Himself Up For ‘Sons Of Anarchy’ Prequel, Spin-Off

In a surprising and interesting development, fans have officially seen the last of The Bastard Executioner. Kurt Sutter recently released a statement with the Hollywood Reporter in which he confirmed that the series would not continue beyond its first season due to the lack of viewership.

Although Sutter credited the cast and crew for bringing a certain level of expertise and hard work to the series, he ultimately stated that he did not want to continue to write for a series that was not bringing in the audience.

“The audience has spoken and unfortunately the word is, ‘meh,'” Sutter wrote. “So with due respect, we bring our mythology to an epic and fiery close.”

The Bastard Executioner, which centered on the story of warrior knight Wilkin Brattle (Lee Jones), aired its Season 1 finale this past Tuesday night on FX. Along with Jones playing the lead role, the series starred Katey Sagal, Stephen Moyer, Brian F. O’Byrne, Matthew Rhys, and Ed Sheeran.

In the end, the numbers were the determining factor in Sutter’s decision to end the series. Although the opening episode was able to draw in a little over 3.5 million viewers, subsequent episodes saw a tremendous drop in ratings. By the show’s Season 1 finale, the viewers had dropped to under a million.

“I like an audience,” Sutter explained. “I don’t want to write something that nobody’s f**king watching.”

Why the low ratings? According to Sutter, there were a number of different factors at work that led to people not wanting to tune into the Sons of Anarchy’s latest creation.

“I think the mythology was a little too dense for some people. There’s a glut of period pieces on right now, and I’m sure timing has something to do it,” he stated. “There’s just so many f**king variables involved in that formula. My sense is that a year from now, people will be like, ‘Why didn’t you make more?’ I mean, I get so many people telling me they’re on episode four of Sons.”

While it is certainly sad to see Kurt Sutter’s newest series fail after only one season, there is one good thing that may come out it. In fact, now that Sutter has more time on his hands, it is hoped that he will move forward with his plans for the Sons of Anarchy prequel and spin-off series.

According to E! Online, Sutter’s plans for the prequel series include focusing on the original members of the motorcycle club, including Jax’s (Charlie Hunnam) father, John Teller.

“I feel it will be a little more, I don’t want to say a historical show, but it takes place in the ’60s and it’s Vietnam,” Sutter explained. “So there’s a lot of iconic events happenings around it that influence John Teller.”

At the same time, Sutter’s spin-off series will center on the story of one SAMCRO’s fiercest rival, the Mayans. According to Entertainment Weekly, Sutter has already moved beyond just thinking about the project and into the preliminary stages of development.

That being said, is Sutter likely to begin work on these SoA related series, or will he find a new project altogether? If Sutter’s recent comments on the matter are any indication, then fans can expect him to start working on expanding the SoA franchise very soon.

“I didn’t want to come right off of that and do a prequel or anything like that,” Sutter told E! News. “I wanted to give it a couple years to breathe before we came back to do it. So none of that has gone away. We’ll see how the next couple years or at least the next year with [The Bastard Executioner] unfolds and then we’ll have to see.”

Tell us! Were you surprised that Kurt Sutter pulled the plug on The Bastard Executioner? Let us know in the comments below.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]