HBO Max releases trailer for Taika Waititi’s pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death
Our Flag Means Death stars Rhys Darby, Taika Waititi, Fred Armisen, and Leslie Jones. It premieres in March
TV News Our Flag Means Death
After putting his spin on vampires in What We Do In The Shadows and Norse mythology superheroes in Thor: Ragnarok (and the upcoming Love & Thunder), Taika Waititi is wading into pirate territory for his upcoming HBO Max comedy, Our Flag Means Death. The show premieres on the streaming platform on March 3.
The comedy is loosely based on the true adventures of would-be pirate Stede Bonnet. As seen in the newly released trailer, Stede (Rhys Darby) is a spoiled aristocrat who voluntarily gives up all his fortune to find a new home and career on a pirate ship, much to the surprise of his fellow wealthy elite. Stede wants to be compared to the likes of Captain Blackbeard (Waititi in glorious facial hair and a wig), and possibly gain the title of Gentleman Pirate for all his adventures—even though he hasn’t gone on any looting quests yet, except for maybe stealing books from a library.
He becomes the swashbuckling captain of a ship named Revenge anyway, where he struggles to earn the respect of a possibly mutinous crew—that is, until he finally meets his hero, Blackbeard. Together they attempt to navigate dangerous waters and survive life on the high seas.
Waititi is a co-producer along with series creator David Jenkins, Garrett Basch, and Dan Halsted. He also directs the pilot episode. The ensemble cast includes Guz Khan, Nat Faxon, Fred Armisen, Leslie Jones, Joel Fry, Rory Kinnear, Kristian Nairn, Samson Kayo, Nathan Foad, Vico Ortiz, Ewen Bremner, Matt Maher, Con O’Neill, David Fane, and Samba Schutte.
Our Flag Means Death’s first season consists of 10 episodes. It debuts with three episodes on March 3 on HBO Max, continues with three more on March 10, two on March 17, with the final two installments dropping on March 24.
63 Comments
This looks bonkers and I 100% will watch it.
Murray from FOTC as a pirate has tons of potential.
I hope he’ll get to go sailing with some Leggy Blonde Pirates.
Murray as Stede Bonnet is such incredibly perfect casting, in general.
“Present.”
Stede Bonnet was an idiot. Blackbeard, no genius himself, played him for a fool. And Bonnet and most of his crew were hanged in Charleston.
Boy that’s gonna be quite the downer ending.
Nice seeing Guz Khan get more work. Interesting guy, check out his show.
Yeah, I really need to see how things go down with Khan Uncle.
I got to know him as a contestant on ‘Taskmaster’. He had a great energy and I’m keen to see more of him.
He was a lot of fun in Taskmaster 12 and I’ve been hoping to see him in something else. Good news!
He popped up in Thieves of the dead or whatever it was called on Netflix. He didn’t have much to do but it was still nice seeing him.
Man Like Mobeen is great.
Kinda wish, since it’s about pirates and ships and all that, that they’d used the Decemberists insane cover of “Crazy of You” that they performed as an encore during the Hazards of Love tour.
You could soundtrack an entire pirate comedy with Decemberists songs and it would be pretty great.
Just listened to this cover and remembered that, good lord, Shara Worden on that tour was so amazing.
If we’re wishing for trailer music for a pirate show, it really *should* be anything by Alestorm.
Is that Guybrush Threepwood?
No! It’s merely a fine leather jacket salesman.
That whole trailer I didn’t hear any say “yarrrr!” This will be visionary!
my fave pirate cartoon
For the record Stede Bonnet was an absolute loser, this show is getting that right. Rich Barbados plantation owner who inherited his parents money upon there death. Was captain in a local militia but did jack all. Probably left because he didn’t like his wife and kids. Really did build a pirate ship and call it Revenge for no reason besides its cool, and proceeded to be shit at pirating. In other words pretty ripe comedic potential.
There’s a lot of wild real life pirate characters. Here’s hoping this inspires an Anne Bonny/Mary Read/Calico Jack Rackham project. (They were technically in Black Sails, but everyone in that show was completely unrecognizable, particularly the Treasure Island prequel characters.)
A historically accurate Anne Bonny show would be nice. A nobody girl who arrived on Nassau, made her life as a prostitute until the governor of the Bahamas cracked down on it, driving her and her friend Mary Read to piracy and legend.
Jean Lafitte’s treasure is still probably somewhere on the Louisiana/Texas Gulf Coast. Except also probably now under water due to subsidence, erosion, and sea levels rising.
Jean Lafitte feels like an award-winning prestige show waiting to happen.
It could be. There is a lot of gaps in his life so you could write a great deal of stuff.
Ehhhh pirate treasure isn’t really a thing and there is a lot of legend about Jean Lafitte. Famously as much a slave trader as a pirate, even his death isn’t clear.
Okay, now I’m even more excited to see Rhys Darby in this role.
You forgot to add: His crew hated him because he paid them wages instead of distributing shares of loot. He also got really sick and had to ask Blackbeard to take over. During that time, Blackbeard actually used the Revenge to capture the ship that he would eventually rename Queen Anne’s Revenge, and left. They encountered him again later, at which point, Stede’s entire crew left him to join Blackbeard.
Or the time Blackbeard ran off when he told Stede to get a pardon. The moment Stede got a pardon he went back to piracy on the belief nobody would recognize him. First ship he robs a guy recognizes him. Also he gets his ship stuck during battle with a pirate hunter.
Taika Waititi has a Ben Stiller arc going on. He has taken one style of joke (gentle guy juxtaposed with evil situation) and inserted it into many genres.It’s a lot like Ben Stiller’s “fake mad”.
Crew Meeting!
Present.
i might have to sign up just for this!
You’ll get Peacemaker too!
And Search Party.
Man, SNL people always make things worse. Those parts should have seriously been recast, old sport.
It debuts with three episodes on March 3 on HBO Max, continues with
three more on March 19, two on March 17, with the final two installments
dropping on March 24.
What the fuck is this schedule, HBO? Or is this a typo?
I suspect that “March 19″ was supposed to be “March 10″.
Better, although 3, 3, 2, 2 is still an odd release schedule.
They did this kind of thing with season 3 of Infinity Train too. I think that one was 5, 3, 2 each week.
I feel like “hey, it worked out great for Infinity Train” should dissuade other shows from following in its tracks.
Going to be some spoilers on March 17.
And they’re not going to whitewash it either. The pirates are really rapey.
I love the people involved in this, but the trailer, like the teaser, did not seem particularly funny to me.Which I hope is just because of the format, because I would love to love this.
I love What We Do in the Shadows so much; I’ll definitely check this out.
At some point they need to work in Rhys stating that he’s the alpha male so he made the decision.
Stede Bonnet, the “gentleman pirate,” such a colossal idiot and lunatic that he kind of comes full circle and actually is awesome
He should have died within days of being a pirate, and somehow outlived Blackbeard. Truly a dumbass for the ages.
When I first heard about this I was worried Waititi would be playing Stede, and robbing us of the glory of him as Blackbeard. I’m glad to be proven wrong.
ship named Revenge I hate prequels.
I know it won’t happen but I would love if they sneak in a line of Stede Bonnet saying “Take my sugar, take anything you like!”Yes, most of my knowledge of the man comes from Black Flag.
I’m in. Makes me miss the lack of new “Pirates!” books by Gideon Defoe.
Was there not already a trailer for this featuring Jethro Tull’s Locomotive Breath?
This smacks of “built up enough Hollywood cred to make expensive dream project.” Normally to be avoided, but I will definitely give this a shot, on the strength of What We Do in the Shadows alone.
I hope Armisen is funnier in this than in Toast of Tinseltown.
He is really tiresome in Toast
TIL there is a new season of Toast of London! Thank you
With guest appearances from two of his fellow vampires.
Taika WaititiI’m in!Rhys DarbyYes, I already said I’m in!
Looks expensive.