Our Flag Means Death season 2: release date, cast, and more to know

Rejoice and go forth and fan artwork: Our Flag Means Dying is formally renewed for season 2. The announcement got here in early June, after months of tension on the a part of the followers and creators.

Whereas it took some time it’s not terribly shocking, given the outpouring of affection the present has been steadily receiving on social media and the increasing popularity among other HBO Max content. On the finish of April, the present has reportedly spent 5 weeks atop Parrot Analytics’ weekly listing of most in-demand exhibits. And having ended on a little bit of a cliffhanger, even the crew behind it’s desirous to see what occurs subsequent.

In an interview with The Los Angeles Instances in early April, Taika Waititi (who stars as Blackbeard and govt produces the sequence, along with directing the pilot): “I don’t know something. I simply suppose that they need to as a result of it is smart. Additionally, I have to know what occurs subsequent. [Laughs]”

Sadly, HBO has not but introduced a launch date. (As of an end-of-season interview with Polygon, Our Flag Means Dying creator David Jenkins says the scripts aren’t written but.) However whereas the wait is definite to be agonizing, Jenkins and crew have alluded to issues they’d wish to see from the breakout present — and now not less than we all know it’s on its means. Right here’s all the things we learn about season 2 of Our Flag Means Dying thus far.

[Ed. note: As one might expect, this post gets into some spoilers for the end of season 1. Ye be warned.]

Photograph: Aaron Epstein/HBO Max

When will season 2 of Our Flag Means Dying air?

No phrase but! There’s not a variety of element but on when the present’s manufacturing will begin filming.

What’s the imaginative and prescient for season 2’s plot?

Jenkins has mentioned in interviews that nothing is written for any future seasons, however that he and the writers know what “route [they] need to take it.” As Jenkins advised Polygon earlier this yr, it was the final three episodes particularly that he thought have been “actually working” for what he has in thoughts for the present transferring ahead:

It’s nice, the tales are actually popping. There are like 4 completely different tales occurring there, which to my thoughts is like “Eughhh, it’s lots!” But it surely flows actually properly. I feel the enjoyable for me in establishing this present is to have moments which might be actually violent, as a result of pirates are criminals, and moments which might be actually broad and genuinely laugh-out-loud humorous, after which moments the place we actually simply settle in and get to see individuals really feel. So long as all these three issues are alternating, I’m completely happy. One may take priority in an episode, but when all three are there, it’s wholesome and it’s working.

In fact, Waititi did inform Decider he had a criticism to boost for season 2’s costume selections: “It was all that hair and beard, I felt like nobody would speak to me,” Waititi mentioned. “It was so sizzling. I might sit on this little tent with the air-con on. I might really feel lonely.”

Photograph: Aaron Epstein/HBO Max

Is Lucius actually lifeless?

It appears unlikely, given how a lot enjoyable Nathan Foad was within the function and the overall tone of the plot. However when Collider requested Jenkins, he merely mentioned “You bought to attend.”

Upon renewal, Foad continued his reign of humor:

What is going to occur to Stede and Ed in season 2?

Having damaged up (in a means) on the finish of season 1, the primary season ends with Stede returning to pirate life having discovered peace with who he’s.

“So he began to really feel, clearly, bodily — by being very severely wounded — after which emotionally, by discovering somebody that he felt love from and love towards,” Darby advised Indiewire. “I feel he’s heading again out to sea simply because he’d by no means felt so alive in his life when he was virtually lifeless. So I feel he’s clearly going to search for Ed, however actually the opposite factor he’s going to search for is getting the gang again collectively, getting the ship, and feeling love in no matter capability meaning to him.”

Sadly he’ll have his work lower out for him, since Ed went fully the opposite means following their breakup. His ultimate actions within the season 1 finale contain returning to the Blackbeard he as soon as was, and hardening himself towards the world: He cuts off Izzy’s toes and feeds them to him, maroons members of Stede’s crew he doesn’t have use for, and even lashes out violently at these he does.

“The present is the connection,” Jenkins advised Decider. “So, we finish in a spot the place there may be this breakup. What occurs after a breakup between these two individuals who, one’s realized he’s in love and the opposite one is damage in a means that he’s by no means been damage earlier than? What does that do to every of them in an motion, pirate world with them looking for one another once more? So once more, I actually love these rom-com beats.”

Photograph: Aaron Epstein/HBO Max

Jenkins stays very a lot dedicated to pondering of Our Flag Means Dying as a love story between Ed and Stede. However that may not imply their points get resolved fully in season 2; he’s pondering a bit extra long-term, as he advised Polygon forward of the finale:

I feel three seasons is nice. I feel we may do it in three. I imply, I don’t know — your notion of what the story actually is adjustments a lot within the writers’ room. If it doesn’t, you’re doing it mistaken. Since you’ve acquired all these different super-smart writers who’ve their very own life experiences, and also you speak by way of the season with them, and then you definately’re like, “Oh, man, there’s all this different stuff there.” However proper now, I really feel like we may most likely do it in three. The factor that fascinates me about this story and makes me need to write the present is asking who’s Stede to Blackbeard, and who’s Blackbeard to Stede. To me, that’s the through-line that cuts throughout your complete sequence. And I don’t know that you just need to see that go on for 5, six seasons.

The place does Izzy match into the love story?

Whereas Stede has his work lower out for himself attempting to win again Ed, his first mate won’t make that simple. Having satisfied Ed to revert to full Blackbeard type, Izzy’s devotion to Ed’s wild aspect is one thing Jenkins says is deeply rooted in its own form of affection. And whereas he agrees with the concept that Con O’Neill’s Izzy is “taking part in the one human with a bunch of Muppets” there’s actually menace behind that devotion.

“I feel Izzy’s deeply in love with Blackbeard, and it’s a really dysfunctional type of love, and he’s just like the jilted partner who’s shedding his man to fucking Stede Bonnet, and he can’t imagine that is taking place,” Jenkins advised The Verge in April. “[Con O’Neill] performs an exhausted high quality that’s actually beautiful as a result of this character may simply be generically evil, and the way in which Con performs, it’s like, he’s credible. I imagine that he can do some harm if he needed to.”

Photograph: Aaron Epstein/HBO Max

Is Our Flag Means Dying season 2 primarily based on the true pirates’ story?

Our Flag Means Dying is nice and cheery, however Blackbeard and Bonnet’s precise historical past is way darker. However in the end, Jenkins doesn’t see the present as a reexamination of the true historic report.

“You wouldn’t need to meet the true Blackbeard. The actual Blackbeard was a rapist who handed ladies over to his crew. The actual Stede Bonnet was a slave proprietor. After we inform these tales, we’ve to be clear with what we’re doing as a result of all of those individuals have been despicable,” Jenkins advised The Verge.

“We needed a present the place these characters can exist in a fantasy world and their race or gayness doesn’t mechanically result in a traumatic storyline for them.”

Plus, as Jenkins advised The Wrap in April, the true ending of Blackbeard and Bonnet’s relationship was not as “beneficiant” as season 1: “In actuality, their falling out was fairly dangerous. After which they by no means noticed one another once more.”

Will we meet extra of Spanish Jackie’s husbands?

Given the sheer alleged variety of them, it looks as if a certain guess. Plus Leslie Jones advised TV Insider that she thinks there’s a narrative in how Jackie acquired her title: “I feel it has one thing to do with a dude, with considered one of her ex-husbands or one thing, as a result of I don’t suppose she’s Spanish.”

So possibly we’ll meet a previous one, or a former-potential-Mr. Spanish Jackie.