Our Flag Means Death Showrunner Breaks Down Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby’s Relationship

Our Flag Means Death debuted its first three episodes on HBO Max this week, and the show currently has a 94% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 83% audience score. The new action/comedy series is executive produced by Taika Waititi and is based loosely on the adventures of Stede Bonnet, who is being played by Rhys Darby. The show follows the pirate who is a little too nice for his chosen profession, and Waititi plays the infamous Blackbeard. During a recent chat with Screen Rant, showrunner David Jenkins broke down the relationship between Darby and Waititi’s characters. 

“They have a chemistry with each other that, when the first time they shot together, it was obvious. It was noticeable, the chemistry that they have. It was very easy. They both played kind of a heavy scene. I think one of your first scenes, [Rhys], was that one where he’s in the bathtub. Immediately it was like, ‘Oh, there’s a shorthand there that’s really lovely.’ And you don’t always get to see it, because Rhys and Taika are both used to coming into a scene, killing it by being absolutely hilarious, and then leaving,” Jenkins explained.

“The thing that I noticed watching it was, and I know I said it to Taika and maybe Rhys, where it was like, ‘You don’t have to come into the scene and kill it, because you’ve got 10 episodes of scenes to do that. You don’t have to do everything.’ Because they’re just amazing and they want to come in and destroy. I think, on this, where they’re both the lead and we get to see so much of them, it’s nice to see them, and to look at them, and watch them think. I haven’t gotten the chance to do that as a fan. So, creating those moments was absolutely a joy.” 

“We’re both very similar,” Darby added. “We have the same sense of humor. We’ve known each other for a long time and we grew up watching the same comedy. So for us, the challenge on this show was the more dramatic side of it. The comedy, that’s a given. We’re going to try and outdo each other every time. So if we’re in a scene that is made to be really funny, it’ll be great and we’ll have an absolute blast doing it. Then there’s those scenes where they’re a little tougher, and we get inside the skin of both characters, and they have to explore each other’s mindset, so we were doing the same. Taika and I were going, ‘What is it about us that that makes us similar? And how did we get here?’ And we thought about this quite often. What are we even doing here in America? And there’s something that we’ve got that’s obviously letting people believe that we should be here. We’re deep-diving into our psyche a little bit and I think that worked out quite well for the characters on the show.” 

Have you watched any of Our Flag Means Death yet? What did you think? Tell us in the comments! 

The first three episodes of Our Flag Means Death is now streaming on HBO Max. They will be followed by another three on March 10th, two on March 17th, and the final two on March 24th.