Overview
First, Reservation Dogs came to an end after three exceptional seasons. Then the TV spinoff of What We Do in the Shadows announced that it will be wrapping up after its upcoming sixth season. Now, Our Flag Means Death is joining them in saying farewell. In fact, it has already walked the plank, with the series cancelled after two seasons.
That makes it three for three in television comedies that Taika Waititi had a hand in. All three were excellent. All three are now finishing. David Jenkins (People of Earth), who created Our Flag Means Death, advised on social media that the show "won't be returning for a third season".
"We've sailed at the pleasure of the fine people at Max, and it brought them no joy to see this journey come to a premature end," he continued. "They allowed us to make something authentically weird and heartfelt, cheering us on the entire way."
"I'm very sad I won't set foot on the Revenge again with my friends, some of whom have become close to family. But I couldn't be more grateful for being allowed to captain the damn thing in the first place."
When Our Flag Means Death arrived in 2022, earned itself a spot among the best new TV arrivals of the year and charmed everyone who watched it, it left viewers thinking the same thing: all television comedies should be pirate romances starring Waititi (Next Goal Wins) and Rhys Darby (Uproar). Only this show earned that feat, however, and it turned out wonderfully — for audiences, that is, with chaos surrounding the seafaring characters played by two of New Zealand's best-known comic names.
Darby stepped into Stede Bonnet's shoes, while Waititi was Edward Teach aka Blackbeard. In just one of their many collaborations — see also: Flight of the Conchords, What We Do in the Shadows, Wellington Paranormal, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Next Goal Wins — the show satirised the buccaneering times of the 18th century. As its first season unfurled and second season embraced even more heartily, Our Flag Means Death also proved to be a sweet and warmhearted love story.
Stede is a self-styled 'gentleman pirate', a great approximation of Flight of the Conchords' Murray if he'd existed centuries earlier, and a man determined to bring a bit of kindness and elegancy to the whole swashbuckling game. He's based on an IRL figure, who abandoned his cosy life for a seafaring existence. The show is a loose adaptation of Bonnet's tale, though.
As for Waititi, he dons leather, dark hues aplenty, an air of bloodthirsty melancholy and a head of greying hair as Blackbeard. While the famed pirate seems like Stede's exact opposite, disproving that is a big part of the show's narrative.
Also featured among Our Flag Means Death's cast: Samson Kayo (Bloods), Vico Ortiz (The Sex Lives of College Girls), Ewen Bremner (Creation Stories), Joel Fry (Bank of Dave), Matthew Maher (Hello Tomorrow!), Kristian Nairn (Game of Thrones), Con O'Neill (The Batman), David Fane (The Messenger), Samba Schutte (Forspoken), Nat Faxon (Loot) and Leslie Jones (BMF).
In season two, they were joined by a heap of new recurring guest stars in Ruibo Qian (Servant), Madeleine Sami (Deadloch), Anapela Polataivao (The Justice of Bunny King) and Erroll Shand (The Clearing), plus Minnie Driver (Chevalier) and Bronson Pinchot (The Mysterious Benedict Society) as guest stars.
Check out the trailer for Our Flag Means Death season two below:
Our Flag Means Death's first and second seasons stream in Australia via Binge and New Zealand via Neon. Read our reviews of season one and season two.
Images: Nicola Dove/ HBO Max.