Enjoy Taika Waititi’s Blackbeard as a swaggering celebrity pirate and Rhys Darby (“Flight of the Concords”) the hilariously ineffective “gentleman pirate” in the full length trailer for HBO Max’s “Our Flag Means Death,” which dropped on Wednesday. HBO Max also announced that the first three episodes will debut on Thursday, March 3.
The 10-episode series is from David Jenkins and Waititi, who executive produces in addition to swordfighting and rocking head to toe leather as the infamous pirate. He also directed the pilot.
Darby’s pirate Stede Bonnet, who aims to “kill with kindness” and defeat his enemies by outdressing them, is based very loosely on the real adventures of a wealthy 18th century landowner who left his comfortable estate to sail the high seas.
On board the Revenge with a potentially mutinous crew, Stede is the kind of pirate who thoughtfully replaces the books he steals with ones he’s already read. The comedy seems to be rather ribald, as we see a bewigged Leslie Jones referring to Stede as the “genital pirate,” and Blackbeard getting an unfortunate lash to the groin.
Episodes 4 -6 will premiere on March 10, 7-8 on March 17, and the final two episode on March 14.
“Our Flag Means Death” is executive produced by showrunner David Jenkins, Garrett Basch, and Dan Halsted.
The ensemble cast includes Nathan Foad, Samson Kayo, Vico Ortiz, Ewen Bremner, Joel Fry, Matt Maher, Kristian Nairn, Con O’Neill, Guz Khan, David Fane, Rory Kinnear, Samba Schutte, Nat Faxon, and Fred Armisen.