Kurt Sutter Torches the Streaming Machine After Netflix Axes THE ABANDONS
Love him or hate him, Kurt Sutter is incapable of doing anything quietly. The guy who gave us Sons of Anarchy and later expanded that universe with Mayans M.C. has always treated storytelling, and the business around it, like a contact sport.
So when Netflix pulled the plug on his western series The Abandons, the real question wasn’t if Sutter would react. It was how loud the reaction would be. The answer ended up being very loud and very Sutter.
The cancellation landed in January after The Abandons debuted on Netflix in December 2025. The show came loaded with serious talent including Lena Headey, Gillian Anderson, and a healthy number of Sons of Anarchy alumni.
But its road to release was already messy. Sutter exited the project well before the premiere, reportedly after disagreements over rough cuts that began life as a feature-length opener.
By the time viewers got it, the season had been reshaped into seven episodes instead of six, and the story now ends on a cliffhanger that will never be resolved. That unresolved ending clearly stuck in Sutter’s craw.
He took to Instagram and dropped a message that felt less like a post and more like a Molotov cocktail aimed directly at corporate decision-making. The original version, shared via Deadline, read:
“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.”
That $150 million figure is the part that made jaws hit the floor. For a seven-episode season, the number feels unreal even by modern streaming standards.
Sutter’s wording strongly suggests that a meaningful chunk of that money went toward reworking material after he was gone, essentially paying to sand down the edges of a show that was already built.
Development on The Abandons was announced back in November 2021. Production finally ramped up in May 2024 after strike delays. Sutter’s departure became public in October 2024, followed by additional filming to split the extended premiere into two episodes.
How much else changed after that, and how much was added or removed without his input, is still an open question.
Not long after the initial Instagram post went live, Sutter edited it, sharpening the language even further. The revised version kept the same spirit while making it clear he wasn’t backing off or walking anything back.
Whether you see this as catharsis, protest, or pure chaos, it’s hard not to admire the clarity of the message. Sutter didn’t beg for renewal, didn’t soften the blow, and didn’t play nice for the sake of future favors.
He said what he wanted to say, exactly how he wanted to say it, and let the fallout land where it may.
In an era where creators are often expected to smile through cancellations and issue polite thank-yous, watching Kurt Sutter light the whole thing on fire feels strangely refreshing. Even if The Abandons never gets the ending it deserved, the post-mortem sure made one hell of a statement.