Having only recently closed out the thrilling opening story, the BBC and FX have already confirmed Taboo Series 2, bringing Tom Hardy back for more dark drama. It may well have taken a little while to seep into everyone’s consciousness, but it went on to get a whole lot of people hooked on it’s gritty take on period drama with a consolidated average of 5.8 million viewers for each episode.
If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s still available at the time of writing to catch up on in its entirety as a box set on BBC iPlayer, so you might want to get involved before it starts to disappear towards the end of March 2017. There’s no word as of yet about when Series 2 will be getting its air date, but we’ll be very surprised if it’s before 2018. What we do know is that it’s been commissioned for another 8 x 60 minute episodes, so it should be just as deep, brutal, complex, intriguing and action-packed as its debut run was.
The opening series was set in London in 1814 during the Prince Regent‘s reign as James Delaney returns from Africa to attend his father’s funeral, despite being suspected dead by everyone he’d left behind, including his half sister, Zilpha. He brings with him a crazy plan to corner the tea trade from China by dint of a deed his dad owned on a piece of land on the Pacific coast of Canada. He sets about making it happen by any means necessary, with some very grim consequences for anyone that gets in his way, but with both the might of the East India Company and the Crown trying to bring him down, he had a lot to contend with. You can find out more with our Taboo Series 1 review.
While the BBC hasn’t announced anything specific about the story for the second series of the dark drama, we do know how things left off at the end of Series 1. Spoilers – Having pulled off his impossible tea plan and escaped the British crown’s final onslaught, James Delaney’s ship was last seen heading out for the Caribbean, but there were fairly significant consequences for everyone involved, including James himself.
The new series should pick up with the bloodied, battered and beleaguered crew as they attempt the Atlantic crossing with James at the helm of the boat he worked so hard to secure in the last series. We’re expecting London to still feature here and there, but it should see the series moving around the world as James heads out to consolidate his plan.
The show has been created by Steven Knight with Tom Hardy and Chips Hardy and Taboo Series 2 will be produced by Ridley Scott’s Scott Free London and Tom Hardy’s Hardy, Son & Baker. Executive Producers are Ridley Scott and Kate Crowe for Scott Free, along with Tom Hardy and Dean Baker for Hardy, Son & Baker, and Steven Knight.
