Mayans MC will include a subtle reference to President Donald Trump, although the current political climate will weigh heavily on a show about Latino outlaws living on the U.S.-Mexico border, co-creator Kurt Sutter explained in a Deadline interview.
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Sutter, who created Sons of Anarchy, was asked how he thought Trump’s rhetoric would impact the perception of the new show. He noted how they handled the changing political atmosphere in SOA, where a plot about white supremacists was a reaction to the rise in white supremacist groups during President Barack Obama’s administration without actually mentioning Obama’s name. Sutter and his writers will do the same in Mayans MC, where politics is mentioned, but Trump’s name is not spoken.
“We’re on the border. We’re dealing with border patrol, we’re dealing with immigration, so it would be inauthentic to not at least acknowledge the tension that’s there,” Sutter explained. “In the pilot, Angel [Clayton Cardenas] tells EZ [J.D. Pardo] the f–g game is changing and we have to be in front of it. That is real, but in the same way on this side of the fence, since Trump’s been elected and all this stuff with the border is going on, there are these f–g militias, these vigilante groups on this side that have felt empowered to go hunting immigrants jumping the wall.”
Sutter said there will be one episode where “f–g yahoos” try to stop people from hopping over a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We deal with that reality, and we reference it. The club references it. But we never comment on the administration,” Sutter told Deadline.
As for the subtle reference to Trump, Sutter said one of the street labels for heroin translates to “tiny hands,” a nod to jokes about the size of Trump’s hands.
“You know how everyone has street labels for their drugs? Theirs was tiny hands, which I’m sure will come back and bite me in the a–,” Sutter said.
The multi-hyphenate said he started writing Mayans MC before Trump was elected. As he continued writing, the parallels to real life continued to emerge, including one scene in episode six where his main character is in a detainment center.
“The parallels are right there and it’s not like I’m going out of my way to bend the story to fit it,” Sutter told Deadline. “But when story lands there I have to acknowledge it or it’ll feel like bulls–.”
Mayans MC picks up two years after the events of Sons of Anarchy and co-stars SOA‘s Emilia Rivera as the leader of Mayans MC. J.D. Pardo’s EZ is the main character, a prospect whose dreams of succeeding in America are derailed by cartel violence.
The show debuts on FX on Sept. 4.
Photo Credit: Facebook / FX
