Charlie Hunnam's Sons Of Anarchy Replacement Can Last At Least 9 Seasons, But There's A Catch
Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.
Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for John le Carré's novel The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.
While viewers have been waiting on Charlie Hunnam’s perfect Sons of Anarchy replacement for some time, his forthcoming spy show has both great and bad news for fans of the actor. While Netflix’s true crime anthology series Monster remains popular among viewers judging by its ratings on the streaming service, this doesn’t mean that the show is well regarded.
Viewers and reviewers alike have complained about Monster’s sensationalism, its disregard for historical accuracy, and its often salacious misinterpretations of real-life tragedies. While many of producer Ryan Murphy’s earlier shows were accused of these issues, such as the FX anthology American Horror Story, 2025’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story was a particularly potent letdown since the show gave Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam one of his biggest small-screen roles since that iconic seven-season cult hit.
One of the best Neo-Western shows of all time, long before Taylor Sheridan effectively took over the genre with the sprawling Yellowstone franchise, Sons of Anarchy made a star of Hunnam in the role of Jax Teller, a conflicted biker who led the titular motorcycle club. While Hunnam’s earlier roles in cult classics like Queer as Folk and Undeclared were acclaimed, Sons of Anarchy saw him offer viewers true career-best work. Fortunately, the upcoming British spy thriller Legacy of Spies can now become a similarly successful hit for the actor.
Legacy Of Spies Has Plenty Of Source Material To Draw From
Based on author John le Carré’s seminal 1963 Cold War novel The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Legacy of Spies is the latest attempt to bring le Carré’s iconic fictional secret agent, George Smiley, to the screen. Succession’s Matthew MacFadyen will play Smiley, a character previously portrayed by James Mason, Alec Guinness, Denholm Eliott, and Gary Oldman, among others.
Written as something of a riposte to the glamorized spy archetype embodied in Ian Fleming’s 007, Smiley could reasonably be dubbed the anti-James Bond. Where many modern spy shows, like Sheridan’s own series Lioness, are still packed with action and fast-paced thrills, le Carré’s books and their adaptations are notable for focusing on the quieter side of espionage. Legacy Of Spies is set to adapt both The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and part of its 2017 sequel A Legacy of Spies, but there are plenty of other George Smiley books.
Charlie Hunnam Won't Necessarily Be A Long-Term Cast Member
As such, the show could last a lot longer than one season. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that viewers should expect Hunnam’s character Alec Leamas to become the star’s new Jax Teller. While the ensemble cast of Legacy of Spies includes Dan Stevens, Hugh Laurie, Anjana Vasan, and Charlotte Ritchie, (Spoilers!) Leamas dies at the end of the original novel in a tragic denouement that proves just how far le Carre strayed from the glamour and romance of the James Bond franchise.
Admittedly, the creators of Legacy of Spies could alter the story to keep Hunnam around, and not just because he is a famous face. In recent years, shows like Apple TV’s masterpiece Slow Horses have made the innovations of le Carré’s original novels comparatively commonplace. When The Spy Who Came In From The Cold was first released, the book was a daring attempt to strip the idealization from spy stories.
However, a lot of major spy shows and movies, from the Bourne franchise to Slow Horses, have taken a similarly cynical approach. This means The Spy Who Came In From The Cold’s once innovative story could now run the risk of feeling predictable over six decades after the novel was released. Thus, to keep viewers guessing, Hunnam’s biggest role since Sons of Anarchy may still see him unexpectedly survive the events of Legacy of Spies.
- Network
- BBC One, MGM+
- Directors
- Michael Lennox, Claudia Llosa
- Writers
- Clarissa Ingram
Cast
-
Charlie Hunnam
Alec Leamas
-
George Smiley
-
Dan Stevens
Bill Haydon
-
Daniel Brühl
Jens Fielder
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.