They asked me if I had any content or ideas that might live in the Spanish language world.
It never came to fruition or at least not to the point where they would pursue those ideas.
Then asSons of Anarchywas wrapping, they were trying to find ways to keep it going.
Prashant Gupta/FX
We had talked about the idea of a prequel, which I still want to do.
How would you execute that?It would be a one-off calledFirst Nine.
Itll begin in Vietnam with John and Piney (played inSOAby William Lucking).
Karl Walter/Variety/REX/Shutterstock
There will be one episode for each guy who joins the first nine.
Thats what I want to do.
As far as a new series, the Mayans made the most sense.
We wanted to let it breathe for a couple of years.
That only lasted a season.
I knew I wanted a prospect to be our protagonist who was not of the life.
There was no Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam ofSOA), there was no lineage.
He would be an outsider.
I love that guy.
I always tell this story.
In the pilot ofSOA, he was a member of the club.
His name was Hawk.
So we decided not to have Hawk.
Its not a series regular.
Itll be a guest-starring role.
His response was, Oh my God, thank you so much.
Thank you for keeping me part of this.
It wasnt like, Oh f, I lost the better gig for the lesser gig.
He just went straight to gratitude.I was like, f, I want this guy around me.
That energy and that gratitude is so palpable.
So will he lord over the Mayans MC?
There were parameters that they had to fulfill to call themselves Sons of Anarchy.
Some of those dues went to the mother club but it wasnt about kicking up percentages.
Thats the case for the Mayans.
Alvarez is essentially the shot caller.
I changed his title because hes been at it for so long.
Hes El Padrino, the godfather.
The idea is not that hes getting older and trying to separate himself.
Clubs become a little more independent and the [shot callers] hand off the responsibilities to other people.
The development of this sequel took some time.
Did you have a full course correction midway through?It always changes for the good.
My introduction of things was much more subtle, as if people would know what was going on.
I had to introduce the world before I could turn it upside down.
When I startedSons,there was never a mandate to have strong female characters.
It was a show about bikers.
It was action driven.
But because of the nature of the world, the women played a bigger role.
It was like, Oh we have to have a mother, then we have this love interest.
I took that mandate away.
I realized this is a show about two brothers and a father with clunky, sparse emotional skills.
How do those men navigate in their ham-fisted way around all the high stakes emotional problems?
Some of your Mayans, as you have said, are ex-cons.
What does that say about the Hollywood acting pool?
They are being wedged in as the politically-correct shade.
As a result of that, the pool of actors has become much smaller.
In this world, casting is everything.
I have to have all the details of the world really authentic.
A lot of the actors I auditioned were pretty brown people trying to act like badasses.
Even JD Pardo, there was something unique about him.
He was tough but naive tough.
To drop a guy like Pardos EZ in that world is perfect because that is who EZ is.
Mayans MCpremieres tonight at 10 p.m.
