We are getting a new Treasure Island soon, one that purports to offer a thoughtful new take on the classic adventure story — but the MGM+ miniseries may have its work cut out for it. Starring David Oyelowo as Long John Silver, Hayley Atwell in the expanded role of Bess Hawkins, and Jack Huston as new character Aaron Graham, Treasure Island premieres on Oct. 11, 2026.
Treasure Island is the coming-of-age story of Jim Hawkins, who comes into possession of a treasure map and sets out to find the cache, while pirates led by John Silver plot a mutiny to take the ship and the treasure. But while this miniseries may be trying to do something more with the historical context, another underrated TV show has already done it all and more.
Black Sails is arguably the most underrated TV show of the century
Premiering on Starz in 2014 and running for four seasons, Black Sails is a period drama epic and a prequel to Treasure Island, following the exploits of Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) and the origins of Long John Silver (Luke Arnold). It is also a work of historical fiction, as the Treasure Island characters interact with historical figures like Anne Bonny (Clara Paget).
Black Sails has masterful acting and writing, exploring themes of oppression, rebellion, and storytelling as a weapon. The various literary, historical, and original characters all experience tragedy and systemic exploitation before they arrive in Nassau, where they consider how they will face England’s eventual return to reclaim the colony.
One of the story's focal points is the tumultuous relationship between Flint and Silver, as they make Machiavellian moves against each other and galvanize the pirates with different feats of storytelling, while developing a genuine friendship. The timeline makes this ultimately about the beginning of the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, and the stories that are left in the aftermath.
If one weighs how good a piece of media is against the kind of appreciation it actually gets, Black Sails is quite possibly the most underrated TV show of the 21st century — despite its rough first season, which everyone agrees is the worst. Following its arrival on Netflix in 2024, even more people came to believe it was better than its contemporary Game of Thrones.
How Black Sails connects to Treasure Island
Black Sails, however, is not a strictly canonical prequel to Treasure Island. It features additional characters like Billy Bones (Tom Hopper) and Ben Gunn (Chris Fisher), and ends with them all in approximately the right places for the classic novel’s plot to happen. But one can easily spot continuity issues based on Silver, Bones, and Gunn’s accounts of the past in the original novel.
Showrunner Jonathan Steinberg explained on the Fathoms Deep podcast that Treasure Island is not canon for them; rather, the writers imagine that the book is a fictionalized tale about John Silver and Captain Flint inspired by the harsher “reality” seen in the events of the show. Thus, the continuity errors in Treasure Island may be due to this fictional writer’s biases or inaccurate sources.
This also leaves it up to interpretation whether the events of Treasure Island ever actually happen in the Black Sails universe, involving these iterations of the characters. Instances of dramatic irony and foreshadowing suggest that the writers are counting on the audience believing these events will happen, but there is no epilogue to prove it.
This means that Black Sails is even further disconnected from an adaptation like the forthcoming MGM+ Treasure Island. The trailer for the miniseries shows that they are already making massive changes to the source material, like Jim’s mother coming along on the voyage and her and Jim possibly being aware of Silver’s duplicity from the start.
Though this Treasure Island may have been inspired by Black Sails, in twisting the basic concept to explore a more contemporary understanding of the period’s politics and the characters’ maneuvers. When the team behind this series was willing to take creative liberties that could prove effective, it may resonate as a spiritual sequel with the Black Sails fanbase.
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