Our Flag Means Death season 2 trailer teases Blackbeard and Stede’s tense queer reunion
Rhys Darby as Stede (L) and Taika Waititi as Blackbeard (R) in Our Flag Means Death season two. (Max)
Ahoy, mateys – the second trailer for Max’s hit queer pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death has landed, and it’s promising rekindled romances, fabulous first mates, and barrels of chaos.
In the year since its first season aired, Our Flag Means Death has accrued a pretty intense cult following. Based very loosely on real, historical events, it follows 18th century high seas rivals Edward “Blackbeard” Teach (Taika Waititi) and Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby).
While season one saw the pair’s rivalry turn gradually into a wildly unexpected romance, the final episode saw Stede decide to leave his pirate life behind and return to his wife Mary – only to discover that she’d moved on.
He performed a U-turn, deciding that the pirate life was for him after all. Yet, while Stede embarked on a voyage to try to reunite with his true love Blackbeard, Blackbeard was consumed with fury at being betrayed, casting ashore Stede’s entire crew.
In August, the first teaser dropped for Our Flag Means Death season two, which suggested that Stede’s desperate attempt at winning Blackbeard over were doomed to fail.
“Dear Ed, I love everything about you, I love being near you, breathing the same air,” Stede wrote in a letter to Blackbeard. His response? “F**k you, Stede Bonnet”.
In the newly-released second trailer, fans finally get to see the Stede and Blackbeard reunion that they’ve been craving, but it certainly doesn’t look like it’s going to be plain sailing.
“I’ve let him down. I should have just told him how I feel,” says Stede in the trailer’s opening. “I will find him.”
When one of his crew suggests that Stede finding Blackbeard might not be the best idea, as he’ll probably end up being murdered by him, Stede is incredulous, seemingly blinded by love.
As far as Blackbeard is concerned, his life is going from bad to worse. “I had a very rough night last night,” he says – he’d spent the night weeping and screaming into the oceanic abyss – but remains resolute: “No more booze, no more drugs, and more importantly, no more Stede.”
That promise to himself doesn’t last long though, as they then appear to finally reunite: Cue a wave of chaotic scenes, set to Patti Smith’s thunderous “Because The Night”. There’s gut punching, sword fighting, rope swinging and head butting, yet it remains to be seen as to whether Stede and Blackbeard can reconcile their differences.
Alongside the return of queer character favourites including non-binary pirate Jim (Vico Ortiz) and shipmate Oluwande (Samson Kayo), the season two trailer also teases the introduction of Wee John Feeney’s (Kristian Nairn) drag queen alter-ego, who will be walking the runway, or the plank, on board Stede’s Revenge ship.
The eight episode second season returns to Max on 5 October in the US, while a UK release date is yet to be announced.
Fans are currently fighting for Our Flag Means Death to be renewed for a third season, which creator David Jenkins has said would be the series’ last.
