Our Ship Is Sunk: Max Cancels Our Flag Means Death

They won’t be talking it through as a crew any longer. After two glorious seasons of hijinks, love, cat flags, cursed jackets, nose jars, and ever, ever so much more, Our Flag Means Death has been sent to a watery grave: The powers that be at Max, in their infinite wisdom, have cancelled the beloved queer pirate show.

This is especially terrible news given that it sounds like creator David Jenkins had a three-season plan. “I love things in threes,” he told Variety. “That first act, second act, third act structure is so satisfying when it is done well, and you don’t overstay your welcome. I think this world of the show is a big world, and if the third season is successful, we could go on in a different way. But I think for the story of Stede and Ed, that is a three-season story.”

Our Flag Means Death is loosely—like, seriously, we need a word that means “more loosely than loosely”—based on the real-life pirate Stede Bonnet, played by Rhys Darby. Stede runs away from his upper-crust life and dubs himself the gentleman pirate; he collects a crew of oddballs played by a roster of top-notch actors (including Joel Fry, Vico Ortiz, and Ewan Bremner); and he encounters the legendary Blackbeard (Taika Waititi), who is maybe not so fearsome as he’s been cracked up to be. Sparks fly.

In the second season, the lovers are separated, and the drama is high. Season two brought yet more outstanding actors to the show, including Minnie Driver (playing also-legendary pirate Anne Bonny), Ruibo Qian (extremely legendary pirate Zheng Yi Sao), and Madeleine Sami (as a fierce member of Blackbeard’s crew). Honestly I would like to tell you about every single actor on this show, but this is neither the time nor place. But I can only hope to see them all in a whole lot of other good things.

David Jenkins shared a heartfelt Instagram post about the cancellation, writing, “We’ve spent two seasons in a bizarre, beautifully rendered world populated by some of the greatest actors and creatives working. And the second season was made possible by the enthusiasm of one of the most likable fan communities in the history of the medium.”

Our Flag Means Us. You can join the too-short adventure by watching the first two seasons on Max. You should do that before they decide to remove it entirely, like they’ve done to too many other series.