Kurt Sutter Says He Will Exit ‘Mayans M.C.’ After Season 2: ‘It’s Time for the White Man to Leave the Building’

Dano Nissen

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Kurt Sutter says he will abdicate co-showrunner duties for “Mayans M.C.” if the show is renewed for a third season.

“It’s time for the white man to leave the building,” Sutter announced at the FX show’s season two premiere at the Arclight Hollywood Cinerama Dome on Tuesday night.

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Sutter’s potential exit would leave Elgin James — the co-creator and co-showrunner of “Mayans” — as the solo leader of the series about the biker gang at the U.S./Mexican border going into season three. As suggested in his short statement to the audience, Sutter’s exit would also leave James and the other Latinx creatives involved with the series at the helm. On the red carpet, James — a long time civil rights activist — opened up about the show’s portrayal of Latinx characters by its Latinx writers and actors, saying that he is tired of Hollywood paying lip service to diversity and inclusion.

“We have to tell our own emotional truth, particularly people of color. Some of us have lived that life. It took us a long time to get out of that cycle and now we’re trying to tell a story inside out,” James told Variety. “For people of color and for women, you’re put in a box and all they’ve done is take that box and put it on a higher shelf and pat themselves on the back and say, ‘Look at what we’ve done.’”

In its first two seasons, “Mayans M.C.” shot on location both at the border and in Mexico. Star Edward James Olmos (who plays Felipe Reyes) told Variety that the choice to film on location is “the most important part of the show,” adding, “We went across the border and brought that reality to life,” he explained. “And now people are going to start to understand about that life.”

While shooting in Mexico, the show used local film crews. Of the experience, J.D. Pardo (EZ Reyes) said, “I cannot tell you how grateful they are how incredibly passionate they are. There’s no beat that skipped.”

“We stay authentic to Latino culture. I don’t want some whitewashed type of dialect and visuals,” Clayton Cardenas (Angel Reyes) told Variety, before recounting a moment while filming in a rural Mexican town that really stuck with him. While shooting season two’s opening scene, a “very shy” boy came up to give his co-star Vincent “Rocco” Vargas “out of nowhere, unprompted, the biggest hug.” “I’m watching this moment. It’s so unfiltered and raw,” he continued. “[The locals] haven’t seen a camera crew before. They’ve seen these actors on TV, but they didn’t know they can actually go and touch them.”

“Mayans M.C.” season two premieres Sept. 3 on FX.

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