Our Flag Means Death was cancelled, but fans are fighting for Season 3

Find out why Our Flag Means Death was wrongly cancelled and how you can join the fight to save OFMD and get Season 3! 

Our Flag Means Death is a romcom loosely based on the true story of Stede Bonnet, an 18th-century aristocrat who abandoned his privileged life to become a pirate. Bonnet sailed for some time with the infamous Blackbeard, aka Edward Teach, and Our Flag Means Death explores the reasons for this surprising alliance. 

During the two seasons that have been produced to date, fans have been taken on an emotional rollercoaster peppered with humor and tender moments. The outstanding performances of the cast, combined with the fantastic scripts, the beautiful sets, and the musical needle-drops make this beloved, award-winning show a must watch.  

Why was Our Flag Means Death cancelled?

Despite its popularity, Max cancelled the hit pirate romcom Our Flag Means Death on 9 January 9 2024, three months after the second season had aired in the US and before it had aired around the world. News of the cancellation, which was delivered by show runner David Jenkins, left fans looking for answers about why such a popular and important show would have been cancelled. 

When Max CEO Casey Bloys was asked why Our Flag Means Death was cancelled, he said that “the numbers weren’t there,” but fans know this isn’t true. When the second season of Our Flag landed in the US in October 2023, it was one of Max’s most popular shows. Parrot Analytics described Our Flag Means Death as a “breakout hit'“ in 2022 and indicated in October 2023 that “its second season is outperforming HBO staples”. Parrot Analytics’ figures reveal that Our Flag was the third most in-demand Max series in the 60 days post-premiere, with 39.6 times more demand than the average show. Crucially, those figures were more than 30 days after the season had concluded.

Months later Our Flag was still the fifth most popular show in the US. According to Statista’s figures for US audiences from 29 January to 4 February 2024, Our Flag was more popular than Apple TV’s Ted Lasso and Netflix’s Witcher.

Statista’s data indicates that Our Flag Means Death was the fifth most popular show in the US in early 2024 — months after it first aired.

With other less popular and more expensive shows remaining in Max’s catalogue, it seems likely that there was another reason for the show’s cancellation that Max is refusing to disclose. It’s been reported that Max was concerned about the level of violence in the show, but given that many of Max’s popular shows have considerably more violent content than Our Flag does, this excuse doesn’t hold water. Perhaps the problem Max had was with Our Flag’s LGBTQ+ representation, although this has been neither confirmed nor denied. 

Max’s Bloys has at least confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the show is available to be picked up by another streamer. 

How fans are fighting for Season 3 of Our Flag Means Death 

Fans are unperturbed by Max’s unfounded claims and continue to hope that Our Flag Means Death will be picked up by a streamer that has international reach, such as Netflix, Apple TV+, or Amazon’s Prime Video. 

With a third of Our Flag Means Death fans unable to watch the second season of Our Flag Means Death where they live because Max doesn’t have a presence in their country, it is clear that another streamer with adequate reach outside the US would be a better home for this hugely popular show.

As a result, Our Flag’s huge fanbase is campaigning to find another streamer to adopt the show, using the hashtags #AdoptOurCrew and #SaveOFMD. This fan-led campaign has raised funds for a billboard in Times Square, a plane flyover with a “Save Our Flag Means Death” banner around Max headquarters in Los Angeles, advertising vans in Los Angeles, and bus shelter and subway street ads in New York.

You can expect to see more fan-led activities as Our Flag Means Death becomes available internationally. Since the cancellation, Our Flag Means Death Season 2 has arrived in the UK where fans had been waiting for months to find out what happened to Ed and Stede.

Since 5 February, the entire Season 2 of Our Flag Means Death is available to watch on C iPlayer, with individual episodes airing on BBC2 on Mondays. For a show whose popularity spread by word of mouth, it will be of no surprise that fans in the UK are hard at work promoting the show and helping friends and family discover it. Fans are capitalising on the fact that the show is now airing in the UK to increase attention to the campaign to save the show via London-based activities. See: Our Flag Means Death fans take campaign to save the show to London.

The next country to gain access to Season 2 of Our Flag Means Death is Germany, where Our Flag Means Death will arrive on RFL+ at 2am on 15 March.

Why Our Flag Means Death should have a Season 3

Creator David Jenkins envisioned a three-season saga to tell the story. While Season 2 ended in a happy place for the main characters, there are many loose ends to tie up and stories to develop, including how the crew will avenge the death of a key character and how the tale will conclude, given the fact that our beloved pirates met an untimely end in real life. So, while Season 2 ended on a high note, there is much still to be explored.

Indeed, Jenkins has already outlined a plan for Our Flag Means Death Season 3. As he told Inverse: "What happens after you start a small business together? How does that work? How do you keep a relationship going? What are the problems in a relationship that are more than just like, oh, does he like me or does he not like me? How do you be a person for that person, and continue to grow with them? What happens if one of them stops growing and you keep growing?… That, to me, is a natural outgrowth of what we like in happily ever after."

Image: NICOLA DOVE/MAX

What you can do to save Our Flag Means Death

Sign the Our Flag Means Death petition

Another way that fans are fighting to save Our Flag Means Death is through a petition that at the time of writing has over 87,000 signatures. Add your name to the petition.

Make your voice heard on social media 

Join us as we ask Netflix, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video to pick up Our Flag Means Death. Tell these streamers how much you love the show and why they should save Our Flag Means Death using the #OurFlagMeansDeath, #SaveOFMD, and #AdoptOurCrew hashtags.