Sons of Anarchy is a series that shows the tough world of a fictional biker club. The SAMCRO motorcycle club is of course also based on real sources of inspiration. A real biker believed that Sons of Anarchy had stolen his ideas, and he even went to court for it. He later starred in the series.
What is Sons of Anarchy? The biker series ran between 2008 and 2014 and tells the story of the fictional biker club SAMCRO over 7 seasons. Jax Teller has to make ends meet with his club after the death of his father.
Sons of Anarchy is still very popular today because it seemed authentic and brought the gangster genre into a more modern setting. The series was based on real motorcycle clubs and even had real bikers as actors.
But things didn’t go well with one of them right from the start. Chuck Zito even sued the show for allegedly stealing his idea. Ironically, he later starred in the series himself.
German trailer for the first season of Sons of Anarchy
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Impressed by Kurt Sutter
What was the lawsuit about? Chuck Zito is the former president of the Hells Angels from New York. Since 1982 he has also played smaller roles in films, in keeping with his past. As he explains in an interview on VladTV (via YouTube), he pitched a biker series to the broadcaster FX, but they didn’t want it.
When it became known that FX was doing one with Kurt Sutter, he was probably irritated and tried to sue FX for $5 million. But Zito lost the lawsuit. He then wanted to challenge the court’s decision. But then Kurt Sutter, the creator of Sons of Anarchy, offered to talk to him.
The two of them probably met together and talked about the whole thing. According to Zito, Sutter apologized for certain statements. Zito explains how he actually came to the meeting to punch someone. But Sutter impressed Zito because he came to the meeting alone, without a bodyguard. About him, Zito said: He’s got guts, man, I’m telling you that.
Zito explained that he liked Sutter after just 10 minutes. Sutter is said to have offered him a role, which he took up in the 5th season. He played Frankie Diamonds.
Zito criticized his lawyer for one thing in the interview. He says he should have advised him to draw up a contract that they wouldn’t just let his character die early in the series. He should have been a main character. Zito’s character died in the 9th episode of the 5th season. Jax Teller, the main character of the series, is based on a real biker: “He was like an old-school outlaw” – The star of the biker series Sons of Anarchy spoke about the real “Jax Teller”