Weekly Wrap-Up
January 14 2024

Well crew, if you haven’t heard yet, we got sad news this week: David Jenkins announced that Max had not picked up Our Flag Means Death for a third season. We made a special blog post about that here. The theme of this week was fan activism – the #RenewAsACrew campaign and the fandom at large has been making great strides in making our voices heard. All that and more below, let’s get into it.

January 8

With awards season kicking off, fans have been extra attentive to nominations and awards events (especially ones that feature Rhys). With the (main) Emmys being presented this weekend, some fans (and us) were concerned that OFMD was going to have to wait another year before potentially getting a nomination for S2. Thanks to a Twitter user, we know that’s not the case:

A lucky fan got to meet Michael Crane (Officer Wellington)!

January 9

Speaking of awards season, production designer Ra Vincent was nominated (again!) for an Art Directors Guild (ADG) Award for his work on OFMD.

But no dice from the Directors Guild of America (DGA).

And then, the bomb dropped. Again, you can read more about this in our blog about the cancellation here.

The #RenewAsACrew campaign embraced turning into a “save OFMD” campaign and encouraged people to start getting in touch with Max about the cancellation, in addition to the other activities they had been promoting.

January 10

The first convention this year to confirm OFMD guests has been announced – GalaxyCon in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Fans took a micron of hope from David Jenkins liking a reply on Instagram about shopping other networks to pick up S3.

Another awards nomination came out, and sadly no Screen Actors Guild Award for OFMD.

January 11

Fans were busy emailing Max about reversing their decision, and have gotten some intriguing replies.

https://twitter.com/TheCozyPirate/status/1745495599258935339?s=20

Warner Brothers Discovery (parent company of Max)’s stocks have not been doing very well. (There was some discussion of insider trading because CEO David Zaslav sold his stocks just before OFMD and Julia were cancelled – industry expert /u/SophiaofPrussia debunked this in this thread.)

ECCC revealed that they won’t be having any OFMD guests this year. They have had OFMD panels the last two years, and have been a source of convening for many OFMD fans, and they got a lot of people messaging them about this decision.

An industry expert shared just how close they think OFMD got to renewal (below tweet is a thread).

https://twitter.com/TheCozyPirate/status/1745641563403771912?s=20

All the while, fans began shifting from anger and hopelessness to optimism and determination. “Polite menace” became the theme of the hour.

As fans were contacting Max and promoting the petition, we started hearing from cast & crew.

We also heard from Jemaine Clement, who many might recognize from “Flight of the Concords” with Rhys, and “What We Do in the Shadows” with Taika and Rhys.

Which David Jenkins then liked.

January 12

In the midst of the chaos, we got an interesting tidbit about the set design.

And speaking of set decorator Lindsey Cantrell, she shared the #RenewAsACrew info to Instagram!

We even heard from S1 cast – Damien Gerard played Ed’s father.

David Jenkins changed his Twitter bio from “I make a show about pirates and their feelings” to “proud pirate daddy.” Some took this as a nod again to the fandom and their renewal efforts.

The #RenewAsACrew campaign launched a new set of campaign activities, including a billboard in Times Square, a plane with a message banner over WB headquarters, and volunteer flyer handouts. They launched a fundraiser for these activities and were funded the full $10,000 in 40 minutes. (WOW.)

We heard from “Stu” from “What We Do in the Shadows.”

As well as Wonder Woman???

And an extra from S2.

January 13

We got a nice post from the gentleman who played the Spanish priest in 2×05!

And Neil Gaiman shared the petition??

Fans continued to get responses from Max. One person in particular, Danica, seemed to be in tune with renewal efforts.

We heard from a Twitter user that 11% of Max users watched OFMD in 2023!

We heard (again!) from Tumblr!

They even posted a TikTok just for us!

#RenewAsACrew’s fundraiser broke $20,000(!) and we heard from the “Haughty Attendant” from 1×05.

Assistant director from S1 Jon Recher chimed in.

And director Fernando Frias!

January 14

David Jenkins posted again thanking fans for their support.

Fans are taking his continued silence over renewal efforts as a sign of consent.

American Samoan faʻafafine footballer Jaiyah Saelua (played by Kaimana in Taika’s film “Next Goal Wins”) shared the renewal campaign on her Instagram.

Other Things This Week:

Let’s keep this energy up! Let’s see what we can do as a fandom!

Until next time,
@OFMDCrew

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