Charlie Hunnam Reveals Why He Is Not Part Of ‘Pacific Rim: Uprising’ And ‘Sons Of Anarchy’ Sequel

Charlie Hunnam is best known for playing Jax Teller in FX’s drama series Sons of Anarchy, and he attained international stardom with the movie Pacific Rim, which failed to impress the U.S. box office but became a mega-hit in China and other international territories. Charlie Hunnam, however, is not part of the Sons of Anarchy sequel, Mayans MC, and also Pacific Rim 2.

It is understandable why Charlie Hunnam is not returning to reprise his role in Mayans MC, which recently wrapped up its first week of production. Sons of Anarchy killed off Jax Teller in the series final episode, and Mayans MC is set in the aftermath of his character’s death, and the focus is on members of the Mayans Motorcycle Club.

Despite his character’s death in the original drama series, fans were hoping to see Charlie Hunnam make an appearance in Mayans MC. The actor recently ruled out the possibility of that happening, saying that he would not be involved with the spinoff and he was developing a couple of stuff of his own. He also told Screen Daily that he was not interested in doing television at the moment.

“No, I won’t be involved in the spinoff [Mayans MC]. Right now, I am furiously developing a bunch of stuff. I have four movies in different stages of development that are set up at studios. A couple I have hired writers for, and a couple I am writing myself. That’s the next phase, there is no television at the moment. But I’m very excited about these movies.”

Earlier in February, Charlie Hunnam said that he would “certainly” be tuning in to watch Sons of Anarchy sequel.

Mayans MC is not Jax Teller’s story, and thus the actor’s absence is not a big deal, but his absence from the cast of Pacific Rim: Uprising is quite unexpected. His co-actors Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, and Burn Gorman are returning to reprise their roles from the original movie, while Charlie Hunnam’s main character, Raleigh Becket, will not be making an appearance, although the actor had signed a contract to appear in the sequel.

Speaking of why he is not part of Pacific Rim: Uprising, the actor told Den of Geek that it was because of the scheduling conflict. Charlie Hunnam said that he was already invested in doing Papillion.

“There was a huge scheduling conflict. I was already really, really invested in doing Papillion.”

Moreover, he also said that after China-based corporation Dalian Wanda had bought Legendary Entertainment, the company that produced Pacific Rim, the work on Pacific Rim: Uprising started at a faster pace, and they wanted to do it very rapidly.

“What happened was Legendary was sold to Wanda, which is the big Chinese corporation, and Pacific Rim, although it underperformed in other territories in the world, was an enormous success in China. All of a sudden, it became their primary focus to make this and they wanted to do it very, very rapidly…”

The actor said that he might have done both Papillion and Pacific Rim: Uprising, but as they were writing the script at that time, they wanted to know whether he was interested or not.

“I think their schedule subsequently changed, and I might have been able to do both, but at that time, they were writing the script and they needed to know, was I in or was I out?”

Charlie Hunnam also talked about the Pacific Rim contract. He revealed that he told Thomas Tull, former chairman at Legendary, that he was invested in the sequel creatively, but his heart would break as he already was going to do Papillion.

According to Hunnam, Tull and others at Legendary were “incredibly” generous to him and let him out of his contract.

Papillion is currently in post-production, and it has yet to announce a release date. Pacific Rim: Uprising, on the other hand, reportedly completed its filming on March 30 and it is scheduled to release on February 23, 2018.

[Featured Image by Rich Fury/Getty Images]