It’s been a long, long road to the second season of Our flag means death, which was officially renewed over a year ago, just after the first season aired. But now it finally has a release date(ish).
The return of the series isn’t terribly surprising given the abundance of love Season 1 earned on social media increasing popularity among other Max content. When it aired, the show reportedly five weeks on top of the weekly list of the most requested programs from Parrot Analytics. Season 1 ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, so even the show’s crew has expressed their excitement to see what happens next.
There aren’t many new details about what to expect from Season 2 – just enough to excite fans and give us a sense of what’s to come for Stede and Blackbeard. Here’s everything we know about season 2 of Our flag means death so far.
(Ed. remark: This entry will be in some spoilers for the end of Season 1. Be warned.)
Photo: Aaron Epstein/HBO Max
When is season 2 of Our Flag Means Death coming?
According to a Vanity Fair profile from August, the new season will start in October. No specific release date has been announced yet.
What is Season 2 of Our Flag Means Death about?
According to the Vanity Fair report, Season 2 begins with Stede (Rhys Darby) and Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) still separated, at least to begin with. Con O’Neill, who plays Izzy, teased that the season is “not following the expected route,” which could prove difficult for those eager to see the couple reunite, physically and romantically.
In terms of tone, Jenkins told Polygon in 2022 that the last three episodes of Season 1 “really worked” as far as he had in mind for the upcoming show:
It’s great, the stories really stand out. There are four different stories going on there, which I think say, “Eughhh, it’s a lot!” But it flows very nicely. I think the fun for me in making this show is having moments that are really violent, because pirates are criminals, and moments that are really broad and genuinely laughably funny, and then moments where we really just settle down and get to work. to see people feel. As long as all three things alternate, I’m happy. One of them may take precedence in an episode, but if all three are present, it’s healthy and working.
Of course Waititi did tell Decider he had a complaint about season 2’s costume choices: “It was all that hair and beard, I felt like no one wanted to talk to me,” said Waititi. “It was so hot. I would sit in this little tent with the air conditioning on. I would feel lonely.”
Vanity Fair also hints at some major location changes, noting that The Revenge (the ship Blackbeard commanded in season 1) is returning, but there will also be a second pirate ship. In addition, there are sets for “a floating market, Stede’s cabin (empty when we get there) and the Republic of the Pirates.” In addition, the costume department reportedly needed costumes for “about 150 Chinese pirates and a fleet of 100 naval officers.”
Photo: Aaron Epstein/HBO Max
Is Lucius really dead?
It seems unlikely, given how much fun Nathan Foad had in the role and the general tone of the plot. But when Collider asked Jenkins, he said simply. ‘You have to wait.’
After an extension, Foad continued his reign of humor:
What happens to Stede and Ed in Season 2?
After Stede and Blackbeard break up (in a sense) at the end of Season 1, the first season ends with Stede returning to his pirate companions after finding peace with who he is.
“So he obviously started to feel physically – by being hurt very badly – and then emotionally, by finding someone who he felt love and affection for him,” Darby told Indiewire. “I think he’s going back to sea just because he’s never felt so alive when he was practically dead. So I think he’s obviously going to look for Ed, but really the other thing he’s going to be looking for is getting the gang back together, getting the ship, and feeling love in whatever capacity that means to him.
Unfortunately, he will have a lot of work to do as Ed went completely the other way after their breakup. He rounds out the Season 1 finale by reverting to the Blackbeard persona he once was, and hardening himself against the world: he cuts off Izzy’s toes and feeds them to him, Maroon members of Stede’s crew he can’t use, and even lashes out violently at those he does.
“The show is the relationship,” says Jenkins said Decider. “So we end up in a place where there is a break. What happens after a breakup between these two people where one realizes he is in love and the other is hurt in a way he has never been hurt before? What does that do to each of them in an action, pirate world where they try to find each other again? So again, I really like those romcom beats.
Photo: Aaron Epstein/HBO Max
Jenkins remains deeply committed to thinking Our flag means death like a love story between Ed and Stede. But that may not mean their issues will be completely resolved in Season 2. He’s thinking a little more long-term, as he told Polygon before the finale:
I think three seasons is good. I think we can do it in threes. I mean, I don’t know – your perception of what the story really is changes a lot in the writers’ room. If not, you’re doing it wrong. Because you have all these other super-smart writers who have their own life experiences, and you talk to them all season long, and then you’re like, “Oh man, there’s all other stuff there.” But right now I feel like we can probably do it in threes. What fascinates me about this story and makes me want to write the show is who Stede is to Blackbeard, and who is Blackbeard to Stede. For me, that’s the thread that runs through the entire series. And I don’t know if you want to see that go on for five, six seasons.
Who’s in Season 2 of Our Flag Means Death?
Almost the entire cast returns: Waititi and Darby, of course, alongside O’Neill, Leslie Jones as the Spanish Jackie, Matthew Maher as Black Pete, Vico Ortiz as Jim, Kristian Nairn’s Wee John, Joel Fry as Frenchie, Samson Kayo’s Oluwande, Ewen Bremner as Nathaniel Buttons and Samba Schutte as Roach. Foad was mentioned in the Vanity Fair article as a love story from the series, but it wasn’t clear if he’s definitely returning.
Plus, the Vanity Fair profile promises some new faces, including Minnie Driver, who will guest star as real-life Irish pirate Anne Bonny, and Ruibo Qian, who will play a mysterious merchant named Susan with some goals of her own. Anapela Polataivao also joins the cast, along with Madeleine Sami (van Deadloch).
Where does Izzy fit into the love story?
For those curious about Izzy’s feelings for Blackbeard, O’Neill’s comments on Vanity Fair seem pretty telling, noting that this season has been quite “demanding” for him as Izzy goes on a “remarkable journey” in Season 2. what love is and who he’s in love with,” O’Neill told Vanity Fair. “Physically it’s been pretty demanding, and also emotionally it’s been pretty demanding to play a guy who’s furious about unrequited love, who’s basically a hopeless romantic, and to be able to play all of that and also remember that this essentially a comedy.”
While Stede has a lot of work ahead of him making peace with Ed, Izzy may not make it easy, especially after persuading Ed to revert to full Blackbeard form. Izzy’s devotion to Ed’s wild side is something Jenkins says is deeply ingrained his own form of affection. And while he agrees with the idea of Con O’Neill’s Izzy “playing the only human with a bunch of Muppets,” there’s certainly some menace behind that dedication.
“I think Izzy is very much in love with Blackbeard, and it’s a very dysfunctional kind of love, and he’s like the rejected husband who loses his husband to the goddamn Stede Bonnet, and he can’t believe this is happening,” Jenkins told The Verge in April 2022. “(Con O’Neill) plays an exhausted quality that’s really beautiful, because this character can just be bad in general, and the way Con plays it is like he’s believable. I believe he could do some damage if he wanted to.”
Photo: Aaron Epstein/HBO Max
Is Our Flag Means Death season 2 based on the true pirate story?
Our flag means death is good and cheerful, but The Factual History of Blackbeard and Bonnet is much darker. Ultimately, though, Jenkins doesn’t see the show as a re-examination of the real historical record.
‘You wouldn’t want to meet the real Blackbeard. The real Blackbeard was a rapist who turned women over to his crew. The real Stede Bonnet was a slave owner. When we tell these stories, we have to be clear about what we’re doing, because all of these people were despicable,” Jenkins told The Verge.
“We wanted a show where these characters can exist in a fantasy world and their race or homosexuality doesn’t automatically lead to a traumatic storyline for them.”
Additionally, as Jenkins told The Wrap in April 2022, the real end of Blackbeard and Bonnet’s relationship wasn’t as “generous” as Season 1: “In reality, their falling out was pretty bad. And then they never saw each other again.”
Will we meet more husbands of the Spanish Jackie?
Leslie Jones has been confirmed to be returning to the series, and given the sheer number of husbands her character has, it seems like a sure bet. Plus Leslie Jones told TV Insider that she thinks there’s a story to how Jackie got her name: “I think it has something to do with a guy, with one of her ex-husbands or something, because I don’t think she’s Hispanic.”
So maybe we meet someone from the past, or a former potential Mr. Spanish Jackie.