‘Sons Of Anarchy’ Movie Rumors Spark Online After Hoax Website Post

Bad news for fans of both “Sons of Anarchy” and Brad Pitt: Recent reports of a prequel feature film starring Charlie Hunnam and the “Fury” actor were all based on a piece written by a satirical news website and, thus, are not true.

After the show’s incredible series finale Dec. 9, talk of a movie went viral when an Empire News article claimed to have a quote from series creator Kurt Sutter. He allegedly said filming of a movie would begin in 2015 for a late-2016 release date. The story would cover Jax Teller (Hunnam) and his journey from birth to the first episode of the biker drama, which premiered in 2008. As of this writing, the story has been shared more than 435,000 times.

“People absolutely loved the show, as did I, and I have put a lot of thought into the matter, and we are going forward with turning it into a feature film,” the bogus Empire News quote read. The only problem is that Sutter never said any of this as the website is transparently built for satire.

A disclaimer for the site reads: “Empire News is a satirical and entertainment website. We only use invented names in all our stories, except in cases when public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental.”

While fans’ hopes for a movie have been dashed, Sutter and FX President John Landgraf aren’t ruling out the possibility of taking a page out of the “Breaking Bad” book by green-lighting a spinoff TV series.

“I’ve had really ... nothing concrete,” Sutter told E Online, “but I know Landgraf really wants to do it, and we’ll figure out a way to make that happen.”

Given Sutter’s tone after the finale of the series, it’s likely that if any kind of expansion on the “Sons of Anarchy” story can happen, it will -- even if it isn’t a big-budget film co-starring Pitt. Still, creating a spinoff would be tricky, given the show came to a conclusive end following seven long seasons.

While the apparent film hoax was all in good fun, “Sons of Anarchy” isn’t the first TV show to fall victim to online fibs about its behind-the-scenes dealings. This year, a rumor circulated online that the popular HBO fantasy drama “Game of Thrones” was canceled and that the fifth season would never premiere. According to NBC News, the hoax was likely a Trojan horse meant to lure unsuspecting people into downloading some harmful malware.

In addition, an April Fools’ Day joke about a reboot of “Full House” got out of hand in 2013 when several people mistook a joke post for a real news article, as BuzzFeed noted. The post suggested the popular 1990s sitcom was returning to television.

For more on the future of “Sons of Anarchy,” fans will just have to stay tuned while FX and Sutter work out the finer details.