Even though the body is still a bit warm and only just buried, it’s time to officially close the book on FX’s “Mayans M.C.” And what better way to do that than with an extended interview with the creative mastermind behind the series, Elgin James? And in this, the final episode of Templo Talk: A Mayans M.C. Podcast, James joins me to discuss the end of ‘Mayans’ and how the highly emotional fifth season was created.
In our discussion, which is now the third in the past three years (you can hear our previous discussions here and here), Elgin and I talk about all aspects of the fifth and final season of “Mayans M.C.” And obviously, the question had to be asked—was the fifth season always planned as the final one or is this just FX telling James and Co. to wrap up?
“Everyone always knew it was only going to be five seasons,” explained James. “And publicly, no matter what we say, it does seem like, ‘Oh, they’re just saying that. The studio and the network wanted to cancel it.’ But that’s the exact opposite. They wanted to do [Season 6]. They wanted to commit to [Season 6] before Season 5. They even talked to me about doing a shortened 5 and 6 together.”
He added, “It was just done, man. I told these stories. People may think it was rushed, but it really wasn’t. This is where we wanted to go… I wanted it to be as propulsive and operatic as we could be. I’d rather put my foot on the gas pedal and do that than cruise at 35 miles per hour and let everyone else drive around us artistically.”
And what an ending, right? The final episode featured some massive deaths and a somewhat optimistic and hopeful ending. And even though James admitted the ending was originally come up with a couple of years ago, the showrunner said that he and his writers came up with various other endings to figure out what was the right way to go. Yes, that means they discussed a hypothetical ending where EZ Reyes (JD Pardo) actually lived.
“We ended up coming up with three different endings. But we ended up with the original ending,” said James. He said the writers were actually asked to come up with the exact opposite ending, “But what if EZ survives? So we had a beautiful ending like that, where EZ did survive.”
Of course, that’s not the way things went.
As for the future, James has a number of things in development, and he still has love for the world of “Mayans M.C.” So, if FX comes calling in the future for more in this world, he’ll listen.
“I love this world. To get the chance to work with these people again? For sure,” he said.
The entire series of “Mayans M.C.” is now available on Hulu. You can hear the full discussion below:
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