Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi star as Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard, respectively, in HBO Max’s new comedy series, Our Flag Means Death.
HBO Max has released the full official trailer for Our Flag Means Death, the streaming platform’s new period comedy, featuring Taika Waititi’s hilariously deadpan portrayal of the infamous 18th-century pirate Blackbeard.
As I’ve written previously, the series is about an aristocrat who abandons his comfy life to become a “gentleman pirate.” Even better: the main character, Stede Bonnet (played to effete perfection by Rhys Darby), is based on a real person who really did sail with Blackbeard for a period. (You can read a bit about the actual pirate here, and/or listen to this episode of the wonderful Footnoting History podcast.)
The first teaser for Our Flag Means Death dropped last month and won us over immediately with its fish-out-of-water premise. Clearly, the series is unlikely to attempt much in the way of historical accuracy, which is entirely the right decision. Tonally, it evokes something along the lines of Hulu’s extraordinary period comedy series The Great, which takes historical characters and facts and embellishes them, complete with the odd deliberate anachronism. Per the official premise:
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