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‘The Bastard Executioner’: Husband And Wife Kurt Sutter And Katey Sagal Talk About New Series

By Jean Mendoza
Published on: 20:30 PST, Sep 15, 2015

The Bastard Executioner is Kurt Sutter’s new TV series that premiered last night, September 15, on FX. Husband and wife Kurt Sutter and Katey Sagal are at it again after working together on seven seasons of Sons of Anarchy, which concluded last December.

While Sutter had a minor acting role in Sons of Anarchy as Otto (aside from being an executive producer), he is taking on a major role in The Bastard Executioner, and fans are happy to know that his character will be the on-screen love of his real life wife, Katey Sagal.

While Sons of Anarchy dealt with motorcycle gangs in the present day, The Bastard Executioner is set in the 14th century during King Edward III’s reign and tells the story of an executioner known as Wilkin Brattle.

Kurt Sutter explained more about the new TV series in an interview with the Associated Press, via ABC 6.

“This is not Sons of Anarchy on horses. I knew creatively I did not want to do another series in the contemporary crime mode. But here I do get to do what I do best: tell the story of tortured and conflicted heroes living on the fringe, and with a great deal of violence, which I feel I do well.”

Violence and bloodshed is indeed Sutter’s forte as evidenced by the body count in Sons of Anarchy, which according to a fan who made a Sons of Anarchy body count map, is at 110, reported International Business Times. With Stutter’s statement and The Bastard Executioner‘s title itself, viewers can expect bloodshed. Katey Sagal is excited to play a new character on TV, Annora of the Alders, which she says is far from the character of Gemma Teller-Morrow, which she played in Sons of Anarchy.

“She is so different from Gemma. She’s kind of a medicine woman. She’s lived a long time and she’s lived many lives. We know that she has a connection with Brattle in helping to guide him to this other life that he’s supposes to live.”

In addition, Sagal said that Annora “floats around with a Dark Mute,” which is portrayed by Sutter. Viewers may not recognize the character as Sutter, as the Dark Mute appears in a mask. Sutter also jokingly says that he plays characters in his own shows because “Nobody else in town will hire me as an actor except me.” The Bastard Executioner is Kurt Sutter and Katey Sagal’s second collaboration. What makes this show even more special is that Sarah White, Sagal’s daughter, will also be appearing in the series. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Katie Sagal opened up about working with her husband and daughter.

“He [Sutter] wrote this part sort of, I guess, [with] fingers crossed that it was going to work out, do you know what I mean? He keeps increasing her part because she’s doing such a good job, and as her family, as her parents, we’re super stoked because it would have been a real drag if she hadn’t been good.”

Katey Sagal also shares that working with her husband is quite different in a TV setting, especially since Sutter works both as a producer and a writer for the show, aside from acting. She says they barely see each other. However, Katey reveals that she thinks Kurt is a good actor, and she’s thrilled that they get to do some scenes and act together. Sutter and Sagal have no idea how The Bastard Executioner will be received. And although some might see the series as something similar to Game of Thrones or Outlander, Sutter says that his show has “its own path.”

“If viewers stay plugged in as the show’s world and characters develop, it will gain a sense of a thing on its own path. The medieval world and the executioner become the backdrop for its relationships and story.”

After the two-hour premiere of The Bastard Executioner, here’s what some viewers had to say.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]

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