Second season of Our Flag Means Death “doesn’t follow the expected route”

The first season of Our Flag Means Death aired on HBO Max (now just Max) in 2022, and quickly became a hit. It was a hard show to pin down. It’s a comedy that also tugs at the heartstrings. It’s a show about 18th century pirates that takes a revisionist approach to how these people acted. We think of pirates as the meanest and gruffest of folk, but the characters on Our Flag Means Death are very in touch with their feelings, something that resonated with audiences.

Something else that resonated: so much gay. The show features a variety of multifacted queer relationships, like the will-they-won’t-they affair between Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) and gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby); the on-ship romance between Black Pete (Matthew Maher) and Lucius (Nathan Foad); or the budding relationship between Oluwande (Samson Kayo) and Jim (Vico Ortiz), who snuck onto the ship in disguise.

Executive producer Garrett Basch told Vanity Fair that the intensity of the fandom that developed around the show surprised some of the team, “but it made a lot of sense” too. It’s not uncommon for shows to hint at queer love stories but not actually show much of them. According to Basch, the success of Our Flag Means Death “says that shows in the mainstream aren’t delivering that promise or that setup, and we have. That’s really why the fans have gone wild for it.”

I think he’s on the money there. I’ll be honest: I was kinda shocked by how many different depictions of queer love were featured on the show, which told me how few TV series actually go there. Our Flag Means Death is doing things differently, and it’s about to do it again with season 2.

Our Flag Means Death season 2 has more “scope and scale”

The first season of the show ended with Blackbeard and Stede having realized they loved each other only to be torn apart. The second season will pick up there and bring back all of our old favorites, as well as introduce new players like Minnie Driver as the real-life Irish pirate Anne Bonny.

To hear the producers tell it, everything gets bigger in season 2. There’s a whole other pirate ship in addition to The Revenge, Stede’s ship. There’s also a floating market set and a set for the Republic of Pirates, which we visited in the first season. The second season will feature two armies of around 150 Chinese pirates and a fleet of 100 navy officers. Are we getting battle scenes? Just how much bigger are they going to go?

According to Basch, season 2 is “going to be unexpected and surprising, but also very pleasurable and satisfying for those who like the show.” Producer Antoine Douaihy says that viewers “will notice a marked difference between the two seasons in terms of the scope and the scale.’’ Con O’Neill, who plays Blackbeard’s devoted enforcer Izzy, says the season “doesn’t follow the expected route.”

Izzy will go on a “remarkable journey” in Our Flag Means Death season 2

Apparently Izzy is in for a “remarkable journey” in season 2, according to O’Neill. “He understands what love is and whom he’s in love with.’’ Izzy didn’t have a romance in season 1, but fans wonder if his fanatical devotion to Blackbeard isn’t a cover for something more. “Physically [working on season 2 has] been quite demanding, and also emotionally it’s been quite demanding to be playing a man enraged by unrequited love, who’s basically a hopeless romantic, and to be able to play all that and also remember that this is fundamentally a comedy.’’

"What I love about this show is it does allow itself to swing between [tragedy and comedy]. We’re almost operatic in our darkness at times, and then we swing back to the sweetness of the simplicity of the love of our two guys. It’s been challenging just to get the tone right.We’ve gone further this season than we did last season with those tones. So sometimes it’s quite interesting to remind yourself that you have to take your foot out of the tragedy—literally, your foot—and put it back into the comedy."

Jim “really evolves” in Our Flag Means Death season 2

“Jim really evolves in season two,” added actor Vico Ortiz. “They’re a bit more chatty and a bit more conversational…. Most of the first season you see Jim in disguise, hiding, but in this one you see them a bit more [thinking,] Oh, this is my chosen family, and I feel good. There’s a bit more zaniness and a bit more softness.’’

"It’s so beautiful to see that people are finding community within the fan base. It’s about creating spaces where we feel safe and seen, and it’s so great to see that so many people watch the show and feel validated in their experiences, whatever that may be. A lot of people that watch the show are like, “Yeah, I’m a guy and it’s good to see all these dudes being vulnerable.’ We can just shake up [ideas about gender].’"

We’ll leave you with director Fernando Frias answering Vanity Fair’s question about whether season 2 will satisfy fans. “If my life depended on saying whether it’s yes or no, I would say yes.’’

Our Flag Means Death returns to Max in October.

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