Sons of Anarchy Still Riding Into The Sunset After Season 7

FX announced today that season 6 of the hit motorcycle drama, Sons of Anarchy, will premiere on September 10th with a special 90-minute episode. The show will continue to run on the network at its regular Tuesday night 10 p.m. slot.

With Clay (Ron Perlman) now out of the picture to an extent, Jax (Charlie Hunnam) will finally have a chance to be the leader he always wanted to be. Unfortunately, with Opie (Ryan Hurst) gone and Bobby (Mark Boone Junior) stepping down, he’ll have to do it with a new VP in tow. Chibs (Tommy Flanagan) taking on a more important role in the club also means that the position of Sergeant at Arms is once again open.

Besides club business, Jax will have a personal struggle ahead of him with Tara (Maggie Siff) potentially spending some serious time behind bars as an accomplice in the murder of a prison nurse by Otto (Kurt Sutter). This leaves Jax’s young sons to be cared for by his mother, Gemma (Katey Sagal) – one of Tara’s least favorite people.

This past weekend at Comic-Con, the cast of Sons of Anarchy shared with fans a glimpse of what else they can expect in the upcoming season during their panel discussion, along with commentary from creator Kurt Sutter on the future of the show. Even though it was the last panel of the weekend, Hall H was full of eager ears.

Sutter announced that despite the speculation and high ratings, he still plans on bringing Sons of Anarchy to a conclusion at the end of season 7, stating that “it has to find its endgame.” He explained it further by saying:

I think we’ve really created these characters and narratives that have been very organic to this world and I feel like we’re running towards the finish…ultimately it has to find its endgame…I have a sense of what I want the last scene of the show to be. How we’re going to get there and what that looks like, I’m not really sure.

Sons of Anarchy has amassed a huge following over its last five seasons and fans aren’t eager to let to show go so easily, but even die-hard supporters will hopefully be able to appreciate his sentiment. Even so, Sutter continues to give fans more of what they want by offering up several 90-minute episodes last season, and more to come.

In the upcoming season, we’ll see Clay take on a new persona as he finally accepts defeat. This is a man who has lost everything he holds dear and now has to find some way to cope with it. In season 5 we saw him begin to re-evaluate his situation and start to consider what he can and cannot live with out, namely Gemma.

During the season finale both Gemma and Juice (Theo Rossi) essentially betrayed him and participated in framing him for the murder of Damon Pope. Sagal and Rossi touched on this briefly during the Comic-Con panel, sharing their thoughts on this pivotal moment in the storyline. Even though it really was a quick scene, it was an incredibly moving moment and was really symbolic to how far Clay has fallen. Perlman had this to say about his character’s future:

Season 6 is him knowing that there’s no more leveraging. There’s no more maneuvering. There’s no more choices. There’s just this bounty on his head and he’s no longer in control of how many minutes he’s got left. It’s the first time in his life when he’s not in the position to have any fight left in him. He’s worn out all his choices and he’s completely at the mercy of other forces.

Sons of Anarchy has always been an intense hour (er, 90-minutes) of television and it looks like season 6 will carry on this tradition. Will Jax be able to lead the club out of the drug business and take care of his family at the same time? Is there redemption in the cards for Clay? Can Tara survive in prison? The countdown to season 6 and all the answers to these questions – and more – has officially begun. Let us know if you’ll be tuning in!