Netflix has announced it will debut a new Kurt Sutter Western series The Abandons. The three-time Emmy nominee and producer has inked a deal with the streamer to create the new series, set to be a western and follow the same gritty nature of Sutter’s previous work, but now in the Old West.
This announcement comes not too long after the streaming giant hired Sutter to make his feature film debut under their banner. Netflix sought the showrunner following his abrupt exit from FX in 2019, which had been his home for almost two decades. At the time of his exit, Sutter was vocal about what happened without sugarcoating the reasons, as he revealed in a letter shared by Deadline:
“I felt the creative scrutiny of Disney from day one. Notes on scripts and cuts have been heavy handed. Demanding a level of dumbing-down story and inane PC restraints like I’ve never experienced before. I genuinely feared for the creative future of the storytelling. So I pushed back. Hard.”
The Kurt Sutter Western series is still in early development, and might only get traction after he is done with his film, titled This Beast. He spoke with Deadline about The Abandons, and revealed what drew him to the project, as well as his influences:
“I’ve always been fascinated with the origins of La Cosa Nostra, how these Sicilian peasant families were being more than marginalized by the land barons and the aristocrats. These families banded together to defend themselves from these abusive land barons, and from that taking those matters into their own hands, La Cosa Nostra was born and became the authority and the law and the order of the land. There are other influences. Over the pandemic, I was watching reruns of Bonanza, and first of all, it completely holds up. I remember watching it as a kid, but I just remember there’s an episode where somebody gets killed, and Hoss just wants revenge, and I mean, like, dark fucking revenge. Ultimately, it’s a Sunday network TV ending, but I just realized that the Cartwrights were a bullet away from being outlaws […] Those were the origins of this, with the working title The Abandons.”
