What We Know About S2 So Far
August 30 2023

⚠️🏴‍☠️ Warning: Ahead are spoilers of varying degrees and authenticity (unofficial information will be indicated as such). Scroll (and share) at your own peril. 🏴‍☠️⚠️

Last Updated: September 1, 2023

Air Dates

According to Warner Brothers Discovery (parent company of streaming service Max), season 2 will premiere with three episodes on October 5, then follow a 2 episodes a week schedule through October 26 (presumably the last week will be only one episode).

We have confirmation from HBO Max Portugal, Brazil, “Adria” (Serbia & Croatia), the Netherlands, “Nordic,” Hungary, “Latin America,” Spain, Romania, and Czechia & Slovakia that they will all be receiving the new season on October 5 as well.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s streamer Neon appears to be following the same schedule as the US, promoting their show as premiering October 6 (which is 4am ET on October 5).

Australia’s streamer Binge will be premiering the first three episodes on October 5 at 6pm AEDT (which is is 3am ET on October 5). FOX8 will be slightly later at 8:30pm (timezone not specified).

As of September 1, BBC has yet to confirm what date S2 will be airing in the UK.

Logo & Poster

Our first look at the S2 logo was from a (swiftly deleted) Instagram post from David Fane in August 2022. David Jenkins gave us a slightly alternate version several days later. A higher-resolution version was posted several months later from the Director of Photography Andy Rydzewski:

The logo features a pair of skeleton mermaids swimming in circles around each other, each holding a component of Blackbeard’s flag, and possibly spelling the word “Ed” with their hands. After the joke about Jim being a mermaid in S1, one has to wonder what mermaids will symbolize in S2.

In August 2023, we received the first official poster for the new season from Max (horizontal and vertical versions, plus a darker variant from Neon):

Our two protagonists form a skull, with a sword and rose depicting each of their emotional states.

Characters

The first official confirmation of characters in season two came from David Jenkins, who posted on his Instagram the day of the wrap party, tagging 18 cast members, 4 of which are new! We have also identified other actors and character information from other sources, where indicated.

Confirmed New Recurring:

*There is evidence to suggest that “Susan” may in fact be infamous pirate Zheng Yi Sao

Confirmed New Guest:

Confirmed Returning:

  • Stede: Rhys Darby
  • Ed/Blackbeard: Taika Waititi
  • Roach: Samba Schutte
  • Jim: Vico Ortiz
  • Izzy: Con O’Neill
  • Frenchie: Joel Fry
  • Oluwande: Samson Kayo
  • Wee John: Kristian Nairn
  • Black Pete: Matthew Maher
  • Fang: David Fane
  • The Swede: Nat Faxon
  • Buttons: Ewen Bremner
  • Lucius: Nathan Foad (per David Jenkin’s wrap party post, and Fernando Frias’ 12/15/22 set photo)
  • Spanish Jackie: Leslie Jones (which she leaked several times, but is now confirmed by Vanity Fair)

Confirmed Not Returning:

Lesbians:

There was much discussion after the release of S1 that there were a distinct lack of female lead characters, and in particular, female queer characters. That is apparently fixed in S2.

We have several unconfirmed details about Madeleine Sami’s character “Archie”:

🎬 “Archie” (Madeleine Sami)

This video was confirmed by a couple of people, but even if this is real, scripts change quickly, so take these clips with a grain of salt.

https://twitter.com/kmostran/status/1634757339424194562

And we have had several discoveries of smaller parts, including extras and stunt people. We will likely not see these people speaking lines, but their parts give us interesting clues about plot and locations.

🎬 Casting Updates: March 8 & 9

Kathleen S: “Red Flag” (thanks to this Twitter user!)
(Note: No longer listed on site, may have changed agencies. Archived version of bio here.)

Ma Christina C: “Red Flag”

Don A: “Swampy Town Folk”

Ringo R: “Republic of Pirates” / “Republic of Pirates Town”

Richard B: “Republic of Pirates”

Alan F: “[Featured Extra] English Soldier”

Karl L: “British Sailors” / “Soldiers” / “Action Extra”
(Note: OFMD is no longer listed on his current bio. Archived version with it is available here.)

Amanda M: “Wedding Guests”

Martin D: “Wedding Guests”
(Note: OFMD is no longer listed on his current bio. Archived version with it is available here.)

Jono Capel-Baker: “Groom” (thanks to this Twitter user!)

Daniel Fernandez: “Spanish Priest” (thanks to this Twitter user!)

Five people have roles that are “TBA” (thanks to this Twitter user!):

Grant Lobban: “TBA”

Kate Fu: “TBA”

Jaden McLeod: “TBA”

Lee Tuson: “TBA”

Zach Douglas: “TBA”

Luke V: “Cast #1 Stand-In”

Nareemun S: “Stand In”

David G: “Stand In”
(Note: OFMD is no longer listed on his current bio. Archived version with it is available here.)

Alistair G: “Stand In”
(Note: OFMD is no longer listed on his current bio. Archived version with it is available here.)

Tino L: “Stand In”
(Note: OFMD is no longer listed on his current bio.)

We also discovered a few crew members:

🎬 Casting Updates: July 12

Helene Wong: “Voice Work” – and this is unspecified, which is interesting. Lots of info about her in her memoir, and her listed accent skills include “Chinese” (though not the language). (Thanks to this user!)

Other actors found on this website are credited as “loop group” – basically background talking and crowd noise.

Simbarashe Matshe:

James Roque:

Andrew Grainger:

Then we had another round of casting from management company “Odd Management“.

Nathan Murray: “Lead Stand In” – basically they’ll be on-set when an actor can’t be, for lighting adjustments and so forth.

Justin Benn: “R.O.P. Town” – we know this to refer to “Republic of Pirates,” from the March 8/9 casting info.

Louis Flavell-Birch: “Blue Coat #2” (lots of discussion on this one, but we’re pretty sure this refers to a British 18th century soldier or military sailor, who wore blue uniforms).

Flynn Chandra: “Extra” – from the same listing of directors as Louis, perhaps they were on the same episode(s)?

Then we had a couple of other confirmations, from other websites.

Ma’aola Faasavala: “Zheng’s foreperson” – and this is fantastic, because this is the very first time we’ve seen Zheng’s name confirmed before. In the March cast leaks, there were a couple of characters credited as “Red Flag,” and so we took a leap in thinking that that referred to Zheng Yi Sao’s Red Flag Fleet, but here it is, confirmed. Of course, Zheng was active roughly 80 years after Stede Bonnet began sailing – and some fans of color have objected to the writers potentially subjecting China to imperialism for an unnecessarily additional almost-century. We will have to see how the writers handle this ahistorical timeline…

Mark Black: “Henchman” – and we wonder, for who??

We also may have confirmation of a return of Tim Heidecker (Doug) in S2? Martin Bailey Illustrator Ltd has credited working with Tim Heidecker and Emporium Productions (the latter has only been involved in S2, to our knowledge).

This is confirmed on Martin’s personal website, where he lists he worked on OFMD S2 storyboards, which are “yet to air.” But this time, no mention of Tim. So we’re not sure what to make of this…

🎬 Other Casting:

Doug McFarlane: Unknown

Photos

📸 Promo Stills 8/24/23

Vanity Fair gave us our “first look” at S2!

Plot

In August 2023, Max released the teaser trailer for S2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHCsauMyJk0

Max’s official statement (which remains unchanged from the one they gave us just after it was renewed):

Season one was (very) loosely based on the true adventures of 18th century would-be pirate Stede Bonnet, played by Rhys Darby. After trading in the seemingly charmed life of a gentleman for one of a swashbuckling buccaneer, Stede became captain of the pirate ship Revenge. Struggling to earn the respect of his potentially mutinous crew, Stede’s fortunes changed after a fateful run-in with the infamous Captain Blackbeard, played by Waititi. To their surprise, the wildly different Stede and Blackbeard found more than friendship on the high seas… they found love. Now they have to survive it.

— Warner Bros. Discovery, 6/1/22

We also know that David Jenkins’ hope is to do a three-season arc, so S2 might not quite be the happy ending we’re all hoping for. Here’s him talking about his idea:

I think three seasons is good. I think we could do it in three. I mean, I don’t know — your perception of what the story really changes so much in the writers’ room. If it doesn’t, you’re doing it wrong. Because you’ve got all these other super-smart writers who have their own life experiences, and you talk through the season with them, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, man, there’s all this other stuff there.’ But right now, I feel like we could probably do it in three. The thing that fascinates me about this story and makes me want to write the show is asking who is Stede to Blackbeard, and who is Blackbeard to Stede. To me, that’s the through-line that cuts across the entire series. And I don’t know that you want to see that go on for five, six seasons.

— Polygon, 5/25/22

IMDB was noticed to have been updated in January 2023 with a plot for S02E01. IMDB is something like Wikipedia – users can edit information, and neither cast nor crew have acknowledged this plot. Therefore, it is likely not legitimate, but we will put it here until we hear either way.

Fans got cast into the habit of summing up S2 in a non-spoiler-y word, so here is the list of those words:

We have several clues from Vanity Fair‘s 8/24/23 article:

  • China! (More likely coming to Stede & Ed rather than Stede & Ed going to China…)
  • Con says S2 “doesn’t follow the expected route”
  • There are two armies: “150 Chinese pirates and a fleet of 100 navy officers”
  • At one point someone is “caught in a storm on the back of the boat” and it “caused havoc with things like tattoos and hair, wigs and beards” (a big storm is also confirmed by a satellite image of the Kumeu Studio set with a water tank and what looks like sprinklers)
  • Con’s scenes have been “frantic” and required “physical endurance”
  • Izzy “goes on a remarkable journey” and “understands what love is and whom he’s in love with”
  • S2 goes further in exploring tones of darkness and sweetness
  • Izzy may lose his foot, which fans have suspected after spying a green VFX bootie in a set photo: “Sometimes […] you have to take your foot out of the tragedy – literally, your foot – and put it back into the comedy.”
  • Con says the cast have “built trust” with David Jenkins “to follow some bigger swings” and that S2 “does stick to the original premise that we created in season one, which is take it on to other levels.”
  • Vico says that Jim “really evolves” in S2, that they’re “a bit more chatty and a bit more conversational” with “bit more zaniness and a bit more softness” rather than hiding in disguise
  • On the day of the interviews, December 8, there was “a major romantic moment between two key characters” (Vico tweeted about breath mints on December 8 – and November 28 – which may mean Jim and Oluwande are the characters)
  • There are “around 50 sets,” including a forest, two beaches, a “floating market,” and the Republic of Pirates (the last we knew already from an extras casting)

Fans have picked up on several other (potential) plot points:

  • Fans think crew might wash up onto a beach cave (or maybe Stede & Ed are stranded to work out their issues), by a possible cave photo seen here
  • There may also be a scene at a lighthouse, per this photo
  • In addition to seemingly confirming Izzy losing a foot, this set photo may also confirm a wedding, which extras have been cast for
  • There are multiple allusions to an exploding or wrecked ship (by Vico here, Samba here and here, David Jenkins here) but it seems not to be the Revenge
  • Episode 1 was filmed on the first day, and Vanity fair’s “rain” promo image is confirmed to be from the first day, so episode 1 is perhaps appropriately rainy and depressing
  • Anne Bonny (who historically dated Calico Jack) appears to be wearing his ring, but also possible matching spider tattoos with Ed…
  • Jim might get their own Crocs!
  • Ed might still have kept Stede’s cravat, as evidenced in this wrap photo
  • Stede & crew may be venturing to Martinique (certainly “Swampy Town Folk” would match up with that location)
  • There is likely an updated cat flag on board the Revenge
  • There is a “mermaid tail“
  • There is at some point a bare butt 👀

Costuming

Episodes

We know from the Writers Guild Association (WGA)’s page (thanks to this user!) as well as the Warner Brothers Discovery August press release that there will unfortunately only be 8 episodes this season (compared to 10 in the first).

However, we also have evidence (thanks to this user!) that the show may be being classified as a “drama” which may mean they can fudge the typical “comedy” 30-minute episode length. The August press release seems to suggest that the season finale will be the only episode airing that week, so perhaps we will get a slightly longer episode:

Filming

Season two was filmed in New Zealand between September 26, 2022 and December 13, 2022.

Filming Locations:

S2 Spoilers