Max’s Our Flag Means Death has meant a lot to fans. We’ve loved to see Stede (Rhys Darby) fall in love with Ed (Taika Waititi) and Jim (Vico Ortiz) find a new love while working on Blackbeard’s crew, and we watched as a new pirate queen came to town. All of this made fans love the series that much more.
So when we found out that Max had actually canceled the show before its third season (which David Jenkins has said would have probably been the last), we all mourned for a day before jumping into action—none more than the crew at Renew as a Crew, especially by pushing a fan petition that shows our upset over the show coming to a premature end. It is sad that this is what we, as fans, have to do to save the stories that mean a lot to us when they don’t deserve to be canceled in the first place.
Now, the team has taken out a billboard in Times Square to get buzz going about saving the series. Big, pink, and proud, the billboard is standing at a busy part of the street, in the higher 40s and right at the heart of Times Square itself.
Moves like this show the desperation and hope that we still have for the show because it isn’t fair that it wasn’t going to have much more story to tell in the first place. Jenkins also talked about the billboard, sharing his shock and love for the fandom.
“You guys got a BILLBOARD in Times Square. A BILLBOARD,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “This truly is the best fandom. I’m speechless. It’s totally humbling and just so damn sweet. Love you. Love all of you. I mean that. You make me feel like I belong to something.”
The fans are making their hope for the future clear!
As someone who has lived through the cancellation of many of my beloved shows too early (Pushing Daisies still hurting me to this day), it can hurt to know that you love something so dearly and a studio doesn’t see it that way. The show was nominated for a GLAAD Award after the fact, and it shows how deeply fans care about this series. Just canceling it without any kind of care in the world shows that Max doesn’t necessarily want that kind of programming but does it for the clicks.
At this point, many fans (myself included) want to see another network take the show and give us the conclusion that was originally planned. So, fans are taking actions to make it clear that we will show up for the new season and we will support a continued world with our beloved pirates. The billboard is beautiful, and it makes me want to head to Times Square (a place I normally refuse to go) to see it because that’s what our love of Our Flag Means Death means to us.
(featured image: Max)
