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Hello from L.A. and TCA!
Team EW has been working hard to bring you all the news coming out of the left coast this week (hence the Spoiler Room Evening Edition here!), but there’s plenty of spoilery stuff from the week that I saved just for y’all! Read on for deets.
Also, want more? Stay tuned. And make sure you send your questions to me. Spoilerroom@ew.com via e-mail or on Twitter @EWSandraG.
Sons of Anarchy fans at Comic-Con got a taste of the explosive season 5 premiere (watch a clip), and now comes a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the season, which premieres in September. In the “Before the Anarchy” featurette below, Ryan Hurst reveals Opie may be looking for a way to kick Jax (Charlie Hunnam) out of the club to give his friend the life he knows Jax had wanted with Tara (Maggie Siff) and his boys. We also get glimpses of Jimmy Smits, Harold Perrineau, and guest star Ashley Tisdale in action. (Takeaway: Perrineau’s Damon Pope has the nicest office we’ve ever seen on the show.)
Perhaps the most fun though is hearing Rockmond Dunbar (Sheriff Eli Roosevelt) sell the season — “Of course, people are gonna die, because that’s what we do on this show. We kill motherf—ers, dead” — and watching Humman bust Theo Rossi’s (Juice) balls for wanting to be a part of “Before the Anarchy.” READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: FX
FX has released an ominous promo for Sons of Anarchy‘s fifth season, which premieres in September. Watch it below. Jax (Charlie Hunnam) crosses a bridge toward Tara (Maggie Siff) — is he leading the club or riding away from them? — and when Gemma (Katey Sagal) tries to stop him, he swerves and drives right off of it. To me, it’s an interpretation of what creator Kurt Sutter told EW will be at the heart of season 5: “What I want to look at this season is the idea that this [being at the head of the table] was always supposed to be his destiny. Can he be the leader of an outlaw empire without ultimately becoming Clay [Ron Perlman] or suffering the weaknesses or the setbacks that John Teller suffered? And ultimately, what kind of leader is Jax? Is this a job that he can do, and is it a job he can do well? Those questions get answered this season.” READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: FX
Between now and June 28, the deadline for Emmy voters to return nomination ballots, EW.com is running a series called Emmy Watch, featuring highlight clips and interviews with actors, producers, and writers whom EW TV critic Ken Tucker has on his wish list for the nominations announcement on July 19.
There have been a few times in Sons of Anarchy EP/director Paris Barclay’s career when he’s known he’s had something special. “Like when David Milch would write a script at NYPD Blue, and I’d go, ‘Wow, this will be fantastic,’ and I’d direct it and he’d win the Emmy and I’d win the Emmy,” Barclay says, laughing. He had the same “wow” feeling when Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter handed him the script for the season 4 opener, “Out.” “It has not only the brutality that some people associate with Sons, but also some really tender, loving scenes — a wedding, a proposal. It’s a great juxtaposition of the kind of hard action that we do really well and some really deep emotional stuff.”
That juxtaposition was set up by the brilliant end montage of the season opener and defined Sons of Anarchy‘s entire fourth season. We’re hoping this is the year the show finally breaks into the Outstanding Drama category. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Prashant Gupta/FX
Between now and June 28, the deadline for Emmy voters to return nomination ballots, EW.com is running a series called Emmy Watch, featuring highlight clips and interviews with actors, producers, and writers whom EW TV critic Ken Tucker has on his wish list for the nominations announcement on July 19.
Katey Sagal has never been nominated for an Emmy, which becomes more baffling when you add her turn as Gemma Teller, the tough-as-nails old lady to Clay (Ron Perlman) on FX’s Sons of Anarchy, to her long list of credits. In season 4, under the weight of a secret neither of them wanted revealed to Gemma’s son Jax (Charlie Hunnam), their marriage frayed (Perlman’s real-life mother told him his character on Sons had gone too far) and Gemma wanted Clay dead. Here, Sagal takes us inside “Hands,” the episode when the situation came to a head — and blows — after Gemma pieced together Clay’s involvement in the attempted murder of Jax’s fiancée, Tara (Maggie Siff). READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
From Sharpay Evans to … an escort?
In addition to the announcement last week that Ashley Tisdale will be taking over the lead role in the Scary Movie franchise, EW has just confirmed that the actress will have a two-episode arc on Sons of Anarchy, playing Emma Jean.
It’s hard to believe the same young lady who belted out “What I’ve Been Looking For” in Disney’s monster hit will be jumping into the rough-and-tumble world of escort services, but it’s Hollywood! Stranger things have happened — just ask Alexis Bledel.
Sons of Anarchy has been renewed by FX for a fifth and sixth season.
Read more:
Jimmy Smits to play baddo ‘Sons of Anarchy’
‘The Devils Ride’: Discovery’s real-life ‘Sons of Anarchy’ — EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW
‘Sons of Anarchy’ creator just messed with the wrong motorcycle gang
Image Credit: Discovery
The creator of FX’s acclaimed biker drama Sons of Anarchy is launching an unscripted series on Discovery Channel that profiles the world’s most notorious gangs and crime families.
Writer-producer Kurt Sutter will make his first foray into unscripted TV by executive producing and appearing in new series titled Outlaw Empires (first trailer below). The series will examine crime organizations such as the Crips street gang, the Irish Mob, a Latin American crime family, the Aryan Brotherhood and, yes, outlaw bikers. Each episode will include interviews with a criminal organization’s current and former members, some of whom are in hiding, and tell tales that Sutter promises will “make Sons of Anarchy look like Sesame Street.”
The show will differ from other cable documentaries by striving to capture the perspective of the criminals inside the organization — not unlike Sutter’s fictional Sons — rather than heavily depending on the perspective of law enforcement. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Chris Hatcher/PR Photos
No more mister nice guy for Jimmy Smits: The NYPD Blue vet will join Sons of Anarchy for a multi-episode arc next season as a super bad dude.
Smits will play Neron “Nero” Padilla, a gang member who has a negative influence on Jax (Charlie Hunnam), Deadline reports. Smits last appeared in the short-lived NBC drama Outlaw.
Sons of Anarchy has already been renewed by FX for a fifth and sixth season. It is expected to return this fall.
For more:
‘Sons of Anarchy’ returns
Katey Sagal talks domestic violence on ‘Sons of Anarchy’
Image Credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Last season’s “Hands” was one of Sons of Anarchy‘s most shocking hours to date — and that’s saying a lot. The episode, screened last night at the PaleyFest salute to Sons in Los Angeles, is likely embedded in fans’ memories because of the incredibly violent scene between Gemma (Katey Sagal) and Clay (Ron Perlman), in which Clay horrifically beat up his wife of many years. Uncomfortable as it was, the scene was sadly just one in a string of intense physical confrontations the couple has shared over the years. (Perlman reminded EW back in December that Gemma has shot Clay.) But the severity of this particular encounter left many fans wondering if the pair would — and should — ever return to their previous state of (relatively) happy matrimony.
“I don’t really know,” Sagal told EW of whether Gemma would ever mend her relationship with her now-estranged husband. “What I do know is that domestic violence is not a stranger to that world — as it’s not a stranger to a lot of worlds. And a lot of people go back to unfathomable situations, which would be unfathomable to me. But I’m not playing me.” READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Sons of Anarchy
Here’s a recap of what we heard about the new season, which kicks off in fall:
Jax’s struggle
The season picks up around three weeks after the events in the finale, Sutter told EW on the red carpet, and finds Jax still sitting at the head of the table. The season will explore “the ripple effect that has on the guys — their loyalties and where people land [on the issue],” said Sutter. “For me, the dynamic that’s fun to play out this season is the struggle of being king. Can you be the leader of an organized crime syndicate and not become Clay? And if you’re not like Clay, will you be forced to suffer the same fate as John Teller?…For Jax, it’s the struggle between those two father figures and what he may and may not become.” READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Alan Hess/PR Photos
SAMCRO fans already knew that Sons of Anarchy, the FX drama about a group of outlaw bikers, will return for a fifth season. Now comes word that SOA was also picked up for a sixth year by FX — which is already considering a seventh season, as well.
At the same time, 20th Century Fox TV and FX Productions — which make SOA for FX — have closed a new three-year deal with Creator Kurt Sutter (pictured, left) to keep him at the helm of the critically-beloved drma while opening the door for him to develop more shows for other nets. (But first, let us know what’s to become of that snake Clay, eh Sutter?). Season 5 will air in the fall.
SOA finished season 4 as its highest-rated to date, building upon last year’s season average by 18% among adults 18-49 and 21% among total viewers. The drama that stars Ron Perlman and Katey Sagal is FX’s No. 1 program in history.
Image Credit: CBS
He came. He saw. He rocked a sweater vest and refused to pull colored rocks. The equal parts entertaining and infuriating John Cochran coulda been a contender had he not flipped sides at the merge. Now, the ousted Survivor: South Pacific contestant joins Jessica Shaw and yours truly on the InsideTV Podcast to talk all about his controversial move, the chilly reception he received from the other jury members at Ponderosa, and the public’s positive and negative reactions to him. Will Cochran come back to play again? And has he received any additional dating advice from noted Lothario Papa Bear? All will be revealed! READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: FX
SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t seen Sons of Anarchy‘s season 4 finale, stop reading now. Creator Kurt Sutter talks us through the intense final hour and teases what’s to come. READ FULL STORY »
James Hibberd
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Lynette Rice
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