- - Is “The Abandons” Based on a True Story? All About the Real-Life Mafia That Inspired the Netflix Western

Emily BlackwoodDecember 6, 2025 at 8:15 PM

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Michelle Faye/Netflix

Lucas Till as Garret Van Ness and Gillian Anderson as Constance Van Ness in Episode 101 of The Abandons. -

Netflix released The Abandons on Dec. 4

The seven-episode series stars Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey as the heads of two rival families fighting for control of their land

Though the drama is set in the 1850s Washington Territory, creator Kurt Sutter said he was inspired by the origins of Italian Mafia families

Kurt Sutter's gripping drama The Abandons may take place in what used to be known as the Washington Territory, but the story was inspired by real-life crime families across the Atlantic.

“I’ve always been fascinated with the origins of La Cosa Nostra, how these Sicilian peasant families were being more than marginalized by the land barons and the aristocrats,” he told Deadline in November 2021. Though Sutter had the idea for a gritty Western even before his hit series Sons of Anarchy premiered in 2008, it would be over a decade before Netflix would pick up The Abandons.

The streamer released the seven-episode series on Dec. 4, which stars Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey as "the matriarchs of two very different families" who "find their fates linked by two crimes, an awful secret, a star-crossed love, and a piece of land with silver underneath," per the official logline.

So, is The Abandons based on a true story? Here's everything to know about the real-life Italian family that inspired the hit Western series.

Is The Abandons based on a true story?

Michelle Faye/Netflix

Aisling Franciosi as Trisha Van Ness and Toby Hemingway as Willem Van Ness in Episode 101 of The Abandons.

No, The Abandons is not based on a true story. However, Sutter was inspired by the origins of La Cosa Nostra, also known as the Sicilian Mafia. Though “mafia” is often used to describe organized crime in general, the term technically applies only to the Sicilian organization and its Sicilian American branches in the United States, per Britannica.

In addition to being influenced by the formation of La Cosa Nostra, Sutter also drew inspiration from classic Western series from the 1950s. "Over the pandemic, I was watching reruns of Bonanza, and first of all, it completely holds up," he told Deadline.

"I remember watching it as a kid, but I just remember there’s an episode where somebody gets killed, and Hoss just wants revenge, and I mean, like, dark f------ revenge," the showrunner continued. "And I loved that it all came from that deep sense of loyalty to the family, the land, the town. Those were the origins of this, with the working title The Abandons."

How was La Cosa Nostra formed?

NY Daily News Archive via Getty

Mug shot of mobster Charles "Lucky" Luciano.

Though historians have debated the exact origins of La Cosa Nostra, many believe the first mobs formed in the mid-19th century as private armies called "mafies" that protected Sicilians against foreign invaders who often ruled their island, per Britannica and History.com.

At the time, the term "mafioso" wasn't associated with crime but rather a person who was suspicious of authority.

"These families banded together to defend themselves from these abusive land barons," Sutter said in his Deadline interview. "And from that taking those matters into their own hands, La Cosa Nostra was born and became the authority and the law and the order of the land."

Eventually, factions of La Cosa Nostra made their way to the U.S. in the 1920s, setting the stage for infamous figures like Charles "Lucky" Luciano to rise to power, per Biography.com.

Were “the abandons” a real group?

Michelle Faye/Netflix

Lamar Johnson as Albert Mason, Natalia del Riego as Lilla Belle, Nick Robinson as Elias Teller, Diana Silvers as Dahlia Teller and Lena Headey as Fiona Nolan in Episode 101 of The Abandons.

In The Abandons, Headey plays Fiona Nolan, a faith-driven woman who adopted a group of children who were orphans and outcasts. While her family is fictional, Sutter said that the term "the abandons" is very much real.

“That was an actual term of the period where it was this kind of catchall phrase that described the outliers, the orphans, the prostitutes, the cripples, the bastards — basically the kind of lost souls living on the fringe of society," he told Deadline. "That is my favorite neighborhood."

Sutter compared his idea of a group of "abandons" who join together to fight back against wealthy families trying to buy out their land on the Western Frontier to La Cosa Nostra.

"They band together," the creator said. "They stand up to the oppressor. Choices are made. Some of them violent, and then, like the peasants in Sicily, they take matters into their own hands and create their own destiny."

Are the characters in The Abandons based on real people?

Courtesy of Netflix

Gillian Anderson as Constance Van Ness and Lena Headey as Fiona Nolan in Episode 102 of The Abandons.

No, the characters in The Abandons are not based on real people — but Sutter alluded to Deadline that if the series runs for multiple seasons, the main cast could encounter some of history's most "iconic outlaws."

"So, it’s sort of like the precursor to the James Gang and other sort of iconic outlaws that we associate with the Wild West," he told the outlet. "So we might wink at history, say in Season 2 or 3 crossing paths with an 11-year-old Billy the Kid, and yet still be able to play in the fictional world, to me, is cool."

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