New Sex Pistols’ ‘Pistol’ trailer celebrates chaos, while chaos surrounds series

After all the back-and-forth and court proceedings, the Sex Pistols‘ Pistol series is soon to become reality. While a few set photos have appeared in advance of the upcoming FX Networks series, we now have an official trailer for Pistol which arrives on May 31 through the Hulu streaming network, check it out below:

The teaser for the series starts off hilariously with a female voice over narrating, “England’s terribly boring, nothing ever changes,” as scenes of the Queen and a wholesome singing group grace the screen. But it’s not long before we transition to the rundown, blue collar life that our young musical heroes inhabit.

We’re invisible. We’re pissed off and no one gives a shit about us, so we don’t give a shit about anyone else, and maybe that should be our image,

Toby Wallace, who portrays guitarist Steve Jones in the series

The trailer shows the restlessness that the young band feels amidst their upbringing, feeling a desire to “kick this country awake if it kills us.” Thomas Brodie Sangster, who portrays the band’s legendary manager Malcolm McLaren declares, “We’re creating a revolution. I don’t want musicians, I want saboteurs.” And during an interview segment, Wallace as Jones, stated, “Actually we’re not into music, we’re into chaos.”

In addition to Wallace and Sangster, the series also features Anson Boon as Johnny Rotten, Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious, Christian Lees and Glen Matlock, Jacob Slater as Paul Cook, Emma Appleton as Nancy Spungen, Maisie Williams as Jordan and also features actors portraying Chrissie Hynde, Billy Idol and Siouxsie Sioux among others.

The highly combustable band took the music world by storm after forming in 1975, and their 1977 release, “Never Mind the Bollocks”, “Here’s Sex Pistols”, remains one of punk’s most revered albums. The band would split in 1978, leaving plenty of drama and one magnificent album in their wake.

Though the band has reunited at times over the years, tensions came to a head once the Danny Boyle-helmed Pistol series for FX Networks started to become a reality. The series was based on guitarist Steve Jones’ 2018 memoir Lonely Boy: Tales From a Sex Pistol. Johnny Rotten, who’s now primarily known by his given name John Lydon, called the show ‘disrespectful’ shortly after it was announced, and was against the use of authentic Sex Pistols recordings in the show. Jones and drummer Paul Cook, as a result, sued the singer in July of 2021, citing a 1998 band agreement that licensing decisions would be made by a “majority rule basis.”

When Pistol was given an official release date earlier this year, it was also revealed that a Sex Pistols compilation album titled “The Original Recordings” would be issued through Universal Music Group a few days prior to the premiere of the show. Rotten, in turn, denounced the release of the record.

Rotten explained to The Sun that his former bandmates spent years plotting the series without him.

Cutting me out is a shockingly stupid move. It’s so ridiculous. It’s so preposterous, they can all fuck off. I supported them for years and years and years, knowing they were dead wood. None of these fucks would have a career but for me. They did nothing before, they’ve done nothing since.Johnny Rotten

Despite his anger over Pistol, the vocalist admitted that he still plans on watching it, mainly so that he can see how he’s been portrayed by his former bandmates.

I don’t really want to watch it but I will need to fact-check it. I have not seen one single second of it. Not any script, I’ve been completely ostracized. To be misrepresented in such a rude manner is unacceptable. If there was any truth in it, they wouldn’t have kept it from me. They were putting this together for three solid years behind my back without involving me in any way, shape or form. The underhandedness of it is preposterous and the assumption that I would be negative right from the start is clearly ludicrous in itself. I wrote all those songs. I’m the image, it’s my name they’re using to promote it, Monsieur Rotten here.Johnny Rotten