Hoist the celebratory flag and break open your best bottle of rum—Our Flag Means Death, everyone’s favorite queer pirate show, has officially been renewed for a second season. After months of clamoring from fans, HBO announced (on the first day of pride month, no less) that the David Jenkins series would be receiving a second season on HBO Max. It’s certainly great news for fans of the breakout queer pirate romcom—but when will season two finally roll around?
Based (sort of) on a true story, Our Flag Means Death is a comedy-drama starring Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi that follows Stede Bonnet (Darby), an 18th-century upper-class landowner who abandons his stifled life with his wife and kids to become a swashbuckling pirate on the high seas. Though at first he seems incredibly ill-suited to the ways of piracy, he quickly strikes up a close bond with universally feared pirate Blackbeard (Waititi) and together, the two teach other how to be the best pirates they can—and just so happen to fall in love along the way.
Season one ran for ten wonderful episodes before ending on a tragic cliffhanger—thanks to a massive misunderstanding, Blackbeard/Ed is left heartbroken and thinking that Stede has left him, and resolves to seek revenge after reverting back to his fearsome Blackbeard persona. It’s a surprisingly unhappy ending for such a sweet, heartfelt series, but now that season two is officially on the cards, it’s more than likely that Stede and Ed could finally get their happy ending after all.
So when will we be able to get our next taste of Stede, Ed, and the rest of the Revenge crew? In all likelihood, it won’t be for a year or two at the very least. The series was initially given a straight-to-series order from HBO in September of 2020, and ended up airing in March of 2022. There’s no sign that season two has started filming yet, so considering it took two years to produce the first season, fans should be able to expect a second season sometime around 2023 or 2024—but as of now, there’s still no concrete release date, or even an idea of when the second season will begin production.
But what about the cast, who had some epic reactions to the renewal announcement? Though it’s finally set in stone that the show will get a second season, there’s still the massive question mark of which cast members will be returning. As with the season 2 release date, there’s also no news (yet) of which cast members will be returning, or if season 2 will see the addition of new series regulars. Even without official notice, though, it’s pretty safe to assume that both Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi will return to reprise their leading roles—though it should be noted that Waititi has no shortage of upcoming projects between his writing, directing, and acting endeavors.
In addition to Darby and Waititi, other expected returnees are Vico Ortiz as nonbinary assassin Jim, Nathan Foad as the snarky violence-averse Lucius, and Con O’Neill as Blackbeard’s obsessive first mate Izzy. Other key ensemble cast members that will more than likely return include Joel Fry (Frenchie), Matthew Maher (Black Pete), Kristian Nairn (Wee John), Ewen Bremner (Buttons), Samba Schutte (Roach), and Nat Faxon (The Swede). Only Guz Khan (Ivan) made it clear on Twitter that he wasn’t coming back to the show, which leads us to wonder what will be happening with Blackbeard’s original crew.
And for everyone asking, a lot…😅
— Guz Khan (@GuzKhanOfficial) June 2, 2022
This is the industry sometimes, they might be choosing a different direction creatively, maybe it’s financial decision, maybe they weren’t feeling your boy. But it’s all part of the journey, and that’s where the fun is for me!
Love my G’s 🏴☠️
There’s no word yet about the status of recurring characters like Leslie Jones’ Spanish Jackie or Claudia O’Doherty as Stede’s wife Mary, but considering their pivotal narrative roles, we’d be glad to see them pop up in season two wherever possible. Even without specific confirmation of who’s returning, though, showrunner/series creator David Jenkins told The Hollywood Reporter that the cast and crew (no pun intended) felt the outpouring of love from fans:
“We felt the show was special while we were making it, but fans’ open-armed embrace of the inhabitants of the Revenge makes heading into a second season all the more sweet. Thanks to our team at HBO Max, our invested executive producers, and our wildly enthusiastic audience for making another voyage to this world possible.”
Though the uncertain timeline may make the wait for Our Flag Means Death a tough one, fans can rest assured that the breakout hit will be returning—we haven’t seen the last of Stede, Ed, and the rest of the gang. Until then, fans can get their Our Flag Means Death fix by engaging with the cast and crew on social media and streaming the series in its entirety on HBO Max.
(featured image: HBO Max)
