You know how rich kids like to slum it and pretend they’re all bohemian, wearing op shop clothes and doing whatever ‘common people’ do? The same thing happened in the 18th century: take the case of the foppish aristocrat who abandoned his life of privilege to live out some high-seas pirate power fantasies.
The guy’s name was Stede Bonnet, and he’s played perfectly by Kiwi comedian Rhys Darby in the upcoming series Our Flag Means Death. Sailing onto BINGE this March for salty Australian sea-dogs, it looks like a swashbucklin’ good time with plenty of laughs and surprising historical detail.
Darby may be most familiar from his similarly useless leadership role in Flight of the Conchords, as the band’s delusional manager Murray. “Why can’t one be a gentleman and a pirate?”, he questions in the teaser trailer below, managing to keep his outfit very clean and white in the midst of grimy piracy scuffles.
There’s a bunch of recognisable “oh that guy” faces in Stede’s crew, too, from Hodor performer Kristin Nairn to Trainspotting‘s Ewen Bremner, and SNL stars Leslie Jones and Fred Armisen as some special nautical guests.
The teaser’s final moments reveal a bit of Taika Waititi as the fearsome Blackbeard. Waititi also directs the pilot episode of Our Flag Means Death, a great fit for his goofy yet meticulous style. If there’s ever the opportunity for some Staten Island vampires, say, to step foot on Stede Bonnet’s ship, we are definitely here for it.
