Kurt Sutter isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I tend to think he’s the whole tea set and pastries, plus afternoon entertainment. Whether it’s his scripted fare like Sons of Anarchy and its Mayans M.C. spinoff, his comic books, or the IRL personality on display in his PIE podcast with his highly significant other Katey Sagal, I’m always interested. So like many others, I was waiting to see how he might react to Netflix recently cancelling his western series The Abandons. Suffice to say, he didn’t disappoint.
Boasting Lena Headey, Gillian Anderson and quite a few S.O.A. vets, The Abandons debuted on the streaming service on December 4, 2025, 16 months after news broke that the creator exited the project, reportedly over Netflix execs’ reactions to rough cuts of what was then a feature-length premiere. On January 21, news broke that the mafia-inspired western wouldn’t be back for Netflix’s 2026 lineup (or any ensuing years’), with the cancellation tied to viewership data noted in the company’s semi-annual report.
Drawing attention to the unfortunate fact that The Abandons ends on a cliffhanger that will never get sorted out, Sutter took to Instagram to raise some entertaining hell that apparently needed some cleansing after it initially went up. His original message went as follows, per Deadline:
Dear Netflix, Next time fear compels you to choose the algorithm over a creator’s vision, remember how that choice unraveled a potentially beautiful project. FYI: Shareholders hate it when they learn more than $150 million was wasted on a single show trying to fix unnecessary mistakes of leadership failures – a destructive trend for both Hollywood and Wall Street.
Kurt Sutter doesn't need things like multiple paragraphs or massive wordcounts to deliver crushing dead-center blows, and makes several attention-grabbing points right there. The biggest detail to take from that post is the allegedly massive price tag that funded the seven-episode season (which was supposed to be a six-episode season). $150 million for such a short season of TV in any era sounds ridiculous, and while a lot of it is on the screen with The Abandons, he makes it sound like a chunk of that total went into "fixing" episodes after he departed.
For a super-truncated timeline: development on The Abandons was announced back in November 2021, the strike-delayed production kicked off in earnest in May 2024, and Sutter’s pre-completion exit was revealed in October 2024, with additional filming then required to split the extended first episode into two parts. I'd love to know if other elements and scenes were added in or removed without Sutter's input. (And if so, how much of it.)
As noted, Kurt Sutter's IG post was later amended in an expertly blistering way for one reason or another. Check out the revised wording below:
Those are probably the most razor-sharp redactions on the Internet in 2026 so far. I'd say they hopefully don't cut both ways, but it doesn't seem like Sutter is extremely willing to hold hands with Netflix again.
To note, the outspoken creative previously made waves for an early project exit when he was fired from FX's Mayans M.C.,, and he previously delivered another one-and-done big-budget series with The Bastard Executioner. But all we can do is learn from the past so that the future can be brighter, right?
As such, I'm as excited as can be about Jason Momoa teaming up with Sutter for a new motorcycle drama, although I might actually be more excited about his even-earlier-in-development noir crime drama for MGM+ following a P.I. in Los Angeles in the 1950s. Hopefully his experiences putting both of those projects together is as positive as can be without any early exits or bloated budgets. As the crow flies!
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