It's Jax's time on FX's Sons of Anarchy.
Jax (Charlie Hunnam) took the presidency from father-figure-turned-enemy Clay (Ron Perlman) at the end of last season and now it's his turn to run the motorcycle club when Season 5 opens on Sept. 11.
"This is the season about Jax at the head of the table and what kind of leader he will become," SOA creator Kurter Sutter told an appreciative crowd at Comic-Con Sunday. "Can you be the leader of an outlaw organization and not become Clay? (And) if you don't become Clay, are you subject to being seen as weak," as Jax's father, an earlier president, was?
When Season 5 opens, Clay, who suffered severe gunshot wounds at the end of last season, has lost not just his presidency but his wife and Jax's mother, Gemma (Katey Sagal). Clay appeared weak and pale in a Season 5 clip shown at the start of the panel.
(True to SOA's rebellious mold, the clip included a snippet of a sex scene between Gemma and a new character played by Jimmy Smits that Sutter said was censored to meet Comic-Con standards. The cast and Sutter promised more bare behinds this season, too.)
But Clay is still alive and Jax had better watch his back, if Perlman has anything to say about it. "I have to wonder, 'Why would you leave me alive? You've got to know why I'm coming back,' " he said. "Unless I'm dead, I ain't stopping."
Hunnam said that even though Jax wants to kill Clay, "he's feeling a little empathy. He's realizing it's not as easy to turn the club around and rule without compromising one's integrity."
Viewers will also see the continuing rivalry between Gemma and Jax's love, Tara (Maggie Siff). "It's really the push and pull of a mother-daughter relationship and the daughter is trying to become her own person within the family structure," Sutter said.
Gemma " loves Tara very much but at the same time she's threatened … that she might be taking over Gemma's position" as the dominant female, Sagal said.
Other Season 5 guest stars include Harold Perrineau, Joel McHale and Ashley Tisdale.
