Kurt Sutter will step down as co-showrunner for “Mayans M.C.” after Season 2. Series co-creator and co-showrunner Elgin James will be the sole showrunner if the drama is renewed for a third season by FX. Sutter made the announcement at the Season 2 premiere event Tuesday night at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.
“It’s time for the white man to leave the building,” Sutter said. He reasoned that it was time that the “Mayans” story — of Latino bikers living near the California-Mexico border — should be told by voices of color. (Elgin James is of mixed-race heritage.)
Last year, James told TheWrap about drawing upon his personal experiences while storytelling.
“It’s something that I said that I never want to do once I became an artist, and then realizing that it was exactly what I have to do as an artist as opposed to pretending it doesn’t exist,” he explained, who said he grew up in a world rife with gangs and violence. “I have this damage inside me that I have to get out.”
“A lot of the people on ‘Mayans M.C.,’ both in front of the camera and behind the camera, actually grew up in the cycle of poverty and violence and then incarceration,” James added. “This is the first time we can tell our own stories from the inside out.”
Season 1 of the “Sons of Anarchy” spinoff followed Ezekiel “EZ” Reyes (JD Pardo), who was fresh out of prison and a prospect in the Mayans M.C. charter on the California/Mexico border. He will continue to navigate his role in the club and his family when the show returns.
Season 2 of “Mayans M.C.” will premiere on FX on September 3.