'Sons of Anarchy' Spinoff 'Mayans MC' Cast 'True Detective' Alum as Lead

By Rachel Cruz, Christian Post Contributor Friday, October 13, 2017

"Mayans MC," the spinoff to "Sons of Anarchy," cast a new lead role following a pilot reshoot. Michael Irby, who appeared in the second season of "True Detective," joins the show as Obispo "Bishop" Losa.

Irby's role is newly-created after the show creator, Kurt Sutter, scrapped the original pilot episode. Sutter wanted "Mayans MC" to open stronger, hence production made character additions, as in the case of Irby, and recast actors.

Irby's Bishop is the president of the biker group Mayans MC's Santo Padre Charter. His cousin Marcus Alvarez (Emilio Rivera) founded the gang.

Bishop served in Irag and he's fiercely loyal to his cousin who took him in when his parents broke up. Upon his return from service, Alvarez asked Bishop to oversee their operations near the California-Mexico border.

Sutter explained in June that reshooting the pilot of "Mayans MC" was not an unusual process after fans worried the new show was having problems. He went through the same creative decision when he created "Sons of Anarchy" in 2008.

Sutter also gave up directing the "Mayans MC" pilot and Norberto Barba will take over this role. Sutter instead will be improving the scripts to the spinoff series.

"Mayans MC" will take place a few years after the death of Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), the hero on "Sons of Anarchy." Teller dealt with Alvarez in some episodes of the mother series, which aired on FX from 2008 to 2014.

Like "Sons of Anarchy," the spinoff show will delve on a motorcycle club that is involved in shady businesses and protection of their turf, as well as the biker culture. The original script was supposed to focus on a prospect or new recruit, Ezekiel "EZ" Reyes (JD Pardo). With the addition of Bishop, however, it's unclear if EZ will still figure in the series

FX earmarked the spinoff series for a 2018 premiere. The exact debut date, however, has not yet been confirmed.