Seeing as streaming series are often canceled before they even have a chance to find their potential audience (assuming they’re not merely scrapped as a cost-cutting measure during post-production), there’s something heartening about the way David Jenkins’ occasionally historically accurate Max show managed to accrue a fiercely loyal fanbase through sheer word of mouth. And on top of being a wholly charming series about oddballs forming a family and discovering love in unexpected places, “Our Flag Means Death” is that all-too-rare show to avoid queer-baiting viewers or dragging out a kiss between its leads for the sake of drama. It’s the type of tenderqueer storytelling corporations love to promise LGBTQIA+ audiences without ever actually giving it to them.
Thankfully, “Our Flag Means Death” season 2 is both real and just on the horizon. In addition to the returning cast from season 1 (which also includes Ewen Bremner, Joel Fry, Matthew Maher, Kristian Nairn, Samba Schutte, and Leslie Jones), season 2 features the likes of Minnie Driver as famed real-life buccaneer Anne Bonny and Ruibo Qian as a merchant who looks to play a key role in the storylines to come. With this new batch of episodes having a much larger scope and scale than season 1 (as many as 50 different sets and real-world locations around New Zealand, where season 2 was shot), it seems Stede and Ed’s epic romance is only just getting warmed up.
“Our Flag Means Death” sets sail on Max on October 5, 2023.