​​​​​​​Mayans Empire

KURT SUTTERAND THE CAST OF FX’S SONS OF ANARCHY SEQUEL SOUND OFF ON THE NEW LATINO BIKER DRAMA

- Lynette Rice

JD PARDO LIKES TO TALK ABOUT HOW HIS START ON MAYANS M.C. was not much different from Charlie Hunnam’s on Sons of Anarchy, the FX drama that inspired this latest series about outlaw bikers. While shooting one of his first outdoor scenes with his fellow leather-clad misfits, the California native (Twilight: Breaking Dawn—Part 2) lost control of his motorcycle after the wheels got stuck in some gravel. “Thank God I had the presence of mind to turn off the bike, roll over with it, and put it to bed,” recalls Pardo, who prepped for his role as a Mayans prospect by attending “Harley school.” “But then I heard Charlie dropped the bike on his first day too! I’m on a good path.”

Like Hunnam’s character, Jackson “Jax” Teller, Pardo’s Ezekiel “EZ” Reyes is a hunky young man with unresolved mommy and high school sweetheart issues when he’s lured into the criminal life of a California motorcycle club. But unlike what happened with Jax, who joined the Sons out of a sense of family tradition, EZ is heavily conflicted about riding alongside his fully patched brother Angel (Clayton Cardenas) in the Southern Cali club near the Mexico border that dubs itself “God’s Assassins.”

Their butcher-shop-owning dad, Felipe (Edward James Olmos), isn’t too thrilled about the development either.