I know a lot of you have been waiting patiently for a post from me about the upcoming season of Sons of Anarchy. My intention was to wait to see what came out of Comic Con last weekend so that I could write a nice, beefy update. And then my laptop died. Luckily, I had backed up all of my info to the external drive before it became a fancy door stop. And luckily my husband hooked me up with a brand spankin’ new 15″ MacBook Pro (thank you, dear).
Alright, so here we go. It’s been a while since I’ve done an SOA update. I will insert my usual disclaimer in that die-hard SOA fans may not find any new information here, but might like to see all the info pulled together in one place.
Season 5 of Sons of Anarchy returns Tuesday, September 11, 2012!
Mark your calendars. Season 5 comes roaring back on Tuesday, September 11th. Looks as though the teaser poster gives us some insight as to the club’s dynamics for the upcoming season. Look at Clay out there outside of that circle, all alone and he doesn’t even have his bike to comfort him. He may be cast out, but I don’t expect him to go quietly.
Poster for season 5 of Sons of Anarchy
CASTING INFO:
The first big actor cast for season 5 was Jimmy Smits who will play Neron “Nero” Padilla, an OG gangbanger with an exit strategy, who becomes somewhat of a mentor for Jax (and apparently has hot sex with Gemma in the premiere). “His whole thing is making enough money to punch that ticket and get out,” Sutter said from the Comic Con panel. I have to admit, I’m not the biggest Smits fan, but I’ll take one for the team.
Jimmy Smits on season 5 of SOA as Nero Padilla
Harold Perrineau joins season 5 of SOA as Damon Pope
Joel McHale, who is already a busy guy with a full-time gig on NBC’s show Community and as host of E’s show The Soup, will play a dastardly con man named Warren, who eventually realizes he’s picked the wrong person to con. There’s little else known about the character, other than the fact that he’s signed on for a multi-episode arc and that he’s been working closely with Katey Sagal (can we assume that the character has chosen Gemma as his target?). No surprise to see McHale get a part on the show, since Kurt & Katey did a funny bit on The Soup to promote last year’s SOA finale.
Joel McHale joins the SOA family, looking really handsome in this photo tweeted out by Katey Sagal (@Kateylous) herself
Chuck Zito will also make an appearance on the show, “playing a nomad [named Frankie Diamonds] who comes to Charming.” You may recall that Zito sued FX for $5 million in June 2010, saying that the concept of SOA was stolen from him. Forgive and forget.
Chuck Zito (@TheChuckZito) tweeted this photo from the set of Sons of Anarchy. Chuck's looking pretty good, huh?
Kurt Yaeger comes aboard as “Greg the Peg”, who will be a recurring character this season. What’s notable about Yaeger is that he is also a below-the-knee amputee, having lost his leg in a motorcycle accident six years ago.
PWD actor, Kurt Yaeger will play "Greg the Peg"
Danny Trejo will reprise his role as Romeo in the season premiere and hopefully a few more episodes down the road.
First 5 episode titles:
Episode 501: Sovereign
Episode 502: Authority Vested
Episode 503: Laying Pipe
Episode 504: Stolen Huffy
Episode 505: Orca Shrugged
What can we expect in season 5?
Now that Jax is the one holding the gavel, the big question is what kind of leader will he be? Kurt Sutter posed the question, “Can you be the leader without become Clay? And can you avoid becoming Clay without being viewed as weak?”
“It’s going to be a very, very uneasy partnership,” Charlie Hunnam tells of the Jax/Clay dynamic. “Jax is keeping him around as a matter of necessity, and when that necessity ends… I don’t know what going to happen.”
Jax then: the Prince
New Jax City: what kind of leader will he be? His new 'do surely gives us a clue. (photo by Kurt Sutter)
There will undoubtedly be some questions in loyalty with the other members in the club. As of the end of last season Opie was a big wild card. We know from Comic Con that Opie will be “in the wind” a little, with the club trying to gain his respect back. Look for a big Opie-centric episode two.
Kim Coates (Tig) told the Comic Con crowd that his character would have to decide if he would align with Clay or Jax. “He’s totally a wild card now, and the way Kurt has set it up for Tig this year is really, really intense,” he said.
As for disgraced, usurped former leader, Ron Perlman pointed out that Clay is a man that has nothing left to lose.“Clay only knows one way, and that is to be on top. He takes a back seat to no one. In season five, everything he has worked for his entire life has been taken from him. He’s wife-less, president-less, he’s lost the trust of his crew/family. He takes orders from no one. He lets no one else set the agenda. What’s amazing to me is that I’m getting to play the exact same human being in a completely different set of circumstances.”
What about the relationship between Tara and Gemma? Sutter explains, “It’s really the push and pull of mother-daughter relationships. It’s not a linear arc this season for them in terms of that struggle. It really changes episode to episode.” Katey Sagal added, “I think she loves Tara very, very much, but at the same time, she’s threatened by her position.”
Tommy Flanagan revealed that Chibs has some loyalties to Clay, “but not a lot.”
More will be revealed of the Gemma/Unser backstory and the ramifications of that smooch she planted on him last season will play out.
Sons of Anarchy: season 5 trailers
FX has released some trailers for season 5. The trailers show the same event from three perspectives: the first is “Brother” from Jax’s POV, the second, “Mother” is from Gemma’s, the third, “Sister” is from Tara’s view. The teasers, set to Dan Auerbach’s “Trouble Weighs A Ton,” feel like a dream, full of symbolism open for interpretation and casts a very foreboding tone for Jax’s reign over SAMCRO. The road to Charming is as dangerous as ever.
Here’s an explosive clip from the premiere episode, “Sovereign” in which the Niners have become a thorn in SAMCRO’s side.
And here are the fun, but not terribly revealing, behind the scenes look at the upcoming season called “Behind the Anarchy”-episodes 1 & 2.
SEASON 4 Dvd release
Season 4 DVD of Sons of Anarchy
Sons of Anarchy season 4 DVD will be released on August 28th! If you don’t want to wait for that I think you can watch at various other places that are pay per play, like iTunes or Amazon instant video.
What’s up with the phone app update?
I was wondering about this as well and I got my answer yesterday in the form of a tweet from the Official SOA twitter account (@SonsofAnarchy) : “SOA FANS: A brand new super app will be out one week before we premiere, it will be combining the SOA Gear with the regular app…and it will be FREE.”
And then I got an answer from Mr. Sutter as well (I love when that happens):
OK, so I think I’ll stop here for now. I’m sure there’s more info out there to gather and I have to confess that I’m not caught up on all my WTFSutter‘s but there’s still plenty of time. I will make an effort to post SOA updates more regularly until the start of the season.
Season premiere, “Sovereign” airs SEPTEMBER 11th, 2012!