The Abandons: Kurt Sutter’s epic Western series for Netflix starts production

It’s been a few years since Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter first announced The Abandons, but the Western series has finally started shooting. Netflix announced the start of production of the first season of The Abandons in Calgary, with an official cast photo seen above.

The official logline for The Abandons reads: “As a group of diverse, outlier families pursue their Manifest Destiny in 1850s Oregon, a corrupt force of wealth and power, coveting their land, tries to force them out.  These abandoned souls, the kind of lost souls living on the fringe of society, unite their tribes to form a family and fight back. In this bloody process, ‘justice’ is stretched beyond the boundaries of the law. The Abandons will explore that fine line between survival and law, the consequences of violence, and the corrosive power of secrets, as this family fights to keep their land.“

“I am fascinated by the metamorphosis of good into evil,” Sutter said. “What must transpire to drive the morally sound to become the dangerously corrupt. The Abandons explores those complex compromises through the most powerful human instinct — the love and protection of mothers.” The ensemble cast includes Lena Headey, Gillian Anderson, Nick Robinson, Diana Silvers,  Lamar Johnson, Natalia del Riego, Lucas Till, Aisling Franciosi, Toby Hemingway, Michael Greyeyes, Ryan Hurst, Katelyn Wells, Clayton Cardenas, Elle-Maija Tailfeathers, Brían F. O’Byrne, Marc Menchaca, Patton Oswalt, Michael Ornstein, Jonathan Koensgen, Jack Doolan, Michiel Huisman, Haig Sutherland and Sarah White. 

I’m always a sucker for a good Western series, so I’m excited that The Abandons is finally happening for Netflix. Sutter has always wanted to do a Western series, but he put those plans on hold when HBO’s Deadwood came out. “I’ve always wanted to do a western, even before Sons, and then Deadwood came out,” Sutter said in 2021. “There’s that great lore of Ian Anderson wanting to be a great rock guitarist, and he saw Clapton play, and he said, ‘F*ck, I’m going to become the best rock flautist that ever lived.’ And he did just that for Jethro Tull. This is how I felt when I saw Deadwood. I said, ‘Let me stick to the crime genre” and then used just about every actor that was on that show. But I do love the genre, and over the pandemic, I tried to get a western IP.“