HBO Max finally announced the return of the wildly popular pirate romcom Our Flag Means Death after a more than two-month wait, daily fan campaigns, and a whole lot of nail-biting. Now that the news is out and it is good, the show’s cast and creatives got to celebrate along with fans on social media.
What a lovely thing to wake up to!
— Rhys Darby (@rhysiedarby) June 1, 2022
Our Flag Means Death makes for excellent TV, and it blew old tropes of queerbaiting out of the water. But one of the greatest joys of becoming a fan of this show is its warm and vibrant cast. From the first, cast members, production crew, show writers, and creator David Jenkins have shared fan art, answered questions, encouraged cosplayers, retweeted articles, and generally engaged with fandom on a level I’ve never witnessed before. The mutual lovefest between the cast and OFMD’s fans has only strengthened the fandom and given it longer legs; we’re all still out here baking orange glaze cakes. Stories from the set have made it sound like filming went swimmingly and everyone enjoyed being a part of the show. So it wasn’t a surprise that many of the cast would have excited reactions to the renewal announcement, though it was a treat to watch them roll in.
First up, series stars Rhys Darby (Stede Bonnet) and Taika Waititi (Edward Teach/Blackbeard), who play the main couple at the heart of Our Flag Means Death.
Waititi waved both the pride flag and the black flag:
🏳️🌈🏴☠️2️⃣ https://t.co/z19giJnPWG
— Taika Waititi (@TaikaWaititi) June 1, 2022
On Instagram, Waititi had even more fun with the announcement news, writing, “🏳️🌈🏴☠️💦💦🍆🍆💦 Season 2 is officially setting sail. #OurFlagMeansDeath Very happy to be swashing some buckles once more. Also the emojis are not dirty. Those are merely ocean spray droplets surrounding two innocent fully erect eggplants.” (This was a reference to a previous tweet of Waititi’s in which he pleaded innocence as to what those “ocean spray droplet” emojis indicated.)
appropriate use of emojis by taika waititi pic.twitter.com/s7ofr7L1Jf
— no context our flag means death (@ofmdnocontext) June 1, 2022
For his part, Darby appears to have awoken from a nap into what must have been roughly half a million notifications on his phone:
Sorry, I was taking a nap after dropping the kids at school. Did we get a second season?
— Rhys Darby (@rhysiedarby) June 1, 2022
Darby also went on a bit of a delightful tear retweeting exuberant fan reactions and memes, like so:
FUCK YEA pic.twitter.com/t7N51VdJKy
— 🌈 Shay ✨ (@shaybeenerd) June 1, 2022
— Stella ~ Polite Menace🌈🏴☠️ (@politemenace1) June 1, 2022
Darby’s Instagram post on the matter was sweetly earnest and somewhat tamer than Waititi’s. He wrote, “It’s official. We’re coming back! I’m so proud of this show and the role I was born to play. Getting another chance to spread Stede’s wings means so much to me and I know the fans deserve more. We’re gonna bring it!!!”
We heard from Con O’Neill, who plays fan-favorite Izzy Hands. Perhaps no cast member has been so vocally engaged and supportive of fanworks than O’Neill, who was busy highlighting the fans in the hours before the announcement dropped:
Happy pride you beautiful people x pic.twitter.com/jc6xJH4H3N
— Con O’Neill (@cononeilluk) June 1, 2022
Post-announcement, O’Neill showed just how thrilled the cast is to be returning to the beloved show:
I’m a very happy pirate x#RenewedOFMD pic.twitter.com/z3DBc4Zj5E
— Con O’Neill (@cononeilluk) June 1, 2022
Vico Ortiz, who plays Jim, has become a non-binary icon on Our Flag Means Death social media. Like O’Neill, Ortiz has been wonderfully supportive of fans, interacting with fanworks and even doing their own part by cosplaying Izzy Hands.
Ortiz regretted not being able to react to renewal content before it was official, but once again demonstrates how on-board this magnificent cast is.
Also leading the fan charge is the lovely Samba Schutte, who plays ship’s cook Roach. Schutte frequently takes the time to like, comment, and share fans’ work, and he single-handedly helped bring hundreds of “Roach’s 40 Orange Glaze” cakes into being.
Happy Pride Month. Stupid puppet pulled it off🥺🖤🏴☠️🙏🏾#OurFlagMeansDeath #ofmd #hbomax @HBOMaxPop https://t.co/6ZxLLWBIuf
— Samba Schutte (@sambaschutte) June 1, 2022
Can someone send me a slice of one of these, stat?
567 and counting🍊🍰 More “Roach’s 40 Orange Glaze” cakes for your timeline. Y’all are beautiful🧡 Sorry for the orange shortage👀#OurFlagMeansDeath #ofmd #ofmdroach #bakingwithsamba @hbomax @HBOMaxPop @GWR pic.twitter.com/95F9kpO10x
— Samba Schutte (@sambaschutte) May 18, 2022
Nathan Foad, who plays Lucius (who is absolutely not dead) provided just the right reaction gif:
https://t.co/VoYKf40lhm pic.twitter.com/aDjotsKnI1
— nathan foad (@nathan_foad) June 1, 2022
Claudia O’Doherty (Mary Bonnet) toasted the fan hive’s success:
Very congrats to the #OurFlagMeansDeath hive! pic.twitter.com/ZkdPTMdigy
— Claudia O’Doherty (@ClaudiaODoherty) June 1, 2022
We also saw happy reactions from Samson Kayo (Oluwande) and Kristian Nairn (Wee John). No word yet from Joel Fry (Frenchie), Nat Faxon (the Swede), Matthew Maher (Black Pete), David Fane (Fang), Guz Khan (Ivan), or Ewan Bremner (Buttons), but not everyone is constantly online. That must be nice!
☺️☺️☺️ #sportmode https://t.co/EWheEC0cyX
— Samson KayÖ (@samsonkayo) June 1, 2022
So much ❤️s https://t.co/YUa1PCnvWC
— Kristian Nairn (@KristianNairn) June 1, 2022
The ratio of @OurFlagHBOMax fans that are insanely talented artists astounds me. Justsayin. I’m very thankful for all of you . ( random gif I know , but two of my favourite things combined lol ) #hiiiYAAA #MissPiggyKarateChopNoise pic.twitter.com/hc0ofNeq4l
— Kristian Nairn (@KristianNairn) May 29, 2022
And last but certainly not least, we have OFMD mastermind David Jenkins, who has embraced the fandom through what must have been a wild ride of a spring:
Heard you might want more of pirates being friends and loving each other up so we got you this second season. 🔥❤️💪🏻🏴☠️🍾😍 https://t.co/USYWg5N4i6
— David Jenkins (@david_jenkins__) June 1, 2022
Jenkins took the time to acknowledge the outpouring of fan participation and enthusiasm that has kept Our Flag Means Death sailing at the top of the charts since its finale:
We love your love of this show. Thank you for an amazing experience and for meeting our work with such kind passion. Xx
— David Jenkins (@david_jenkins__) June 1, 2022
“We love your love of this show,” Jenkins wrote. “Thank you for an amazing experience and for meeting our work with such kind passion.” If more series on television could have this much synergy between audience and creatives, the world and the world of entertainment would be a better place. Maybe hire David Jenkins and his team for everything?
(image: HBO Max)
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