The second season of Tom Hardy and his 19th-century adventure Taboo was officially announced by the BBC which means more James Delaney and his dirty pals from the League of the Damned. This was announced back in early 2017.
We’ve been waiting for four years now, and nothing has happened.
Steven Knight said, “James Delaney will continue to explore many realities as he takes his band of misfits to a new world, thanks to FX and the BBC, partners who could not be more suited to collaborating in groundbreaking work.”
Ridley Scott, The executive producer said, “We’re thrilled people want to know what happens next and that the BBC and FX are up for more adventures with the devil Delaney and the league of the damned.”
Charlotte Moore, BBC’s Creative Director said, “Launching in a new Saturday night slot on BBC One provided us with an opportunity to take risks and showcase distinctive drama; and the growing talkability of Taboo has engaged younger audiences seeing record numbers coming to iPlayer, with the availability of the box set maximizing audiences even further.”
She further added, “A second series can’t come soon enough.”
In an interview, Steven said, “Their decision to put something like Taboo, which is pretty on the edge, on a Saturday night on BBC One was mad.
“But it was inspired too because it worked. It got people talking, and it sort of created that slot. It was a trailblazer for that Saturday-night drama.”
Since Taboo season 2 is going to air sometime in the near future, so we have compiled all the latest news about Season 2 below. So, read on!
Expected Release Date for Taboo Season 2
On January 7, 2017, BBC One in the United Kingdom aired the first season, followed by FX in the United States on January 10, 2017.
The filming of the second season was initially scheduled to commence in the early months of 2018. Steven Knight stated, “I’m trying to write it as quickly as I can.”
“I would say we would hope to be shooting it… early next year.”
Throughout 2018, it appeared that Hardy and Knight have been holding off more Taboo due to their busy schedules.
Peaky Blinders is the brainchild of Knight.
Aside from Serenity (featuring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway), steven also developed and directed See (starring Jason Momoa and Alfre Woodard), which was created for the Apple TV+ service and stars Jason Momoa and Alfre Woodard. With Connor Swindells and Jack O’Connell, he has recently worked on the upcoming drama series SAS: Rogue Heroes.
Aside from Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Hardy had a hectic acting schedule. Also in 2020, he starred in Capone and Havoc, a police thriller directed by Gareth Evans.
For BBC One and FX, Hardy and Knight are also collaborating on Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations.
Knight said, “Adapting Dickens’ work is a delight. I chose Great Expectations as the next work to bring to the screen not just because of the timeless characters, but also because of the very timely story.
“As the son of a Blacksmith myself, Pip’s journey from the forge into society is a very special one to me.”
Eric Schrier, president of FX Entertainment, said, “FX is honored to begin the next chapter of collaboration with Steven Knight, Ridley Scott, Tom Hardy, and their teams as they reunite for this modern adaption of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations,”
Charlotte Moore stated, “Great Expectations is the perfect choice given its timely and personal narrative. Knight’s original take on one of Britain’s most-loved classics will make it a must-see drama for a whole new generation.”
For Taboo, we finally had an update in 2019, but it wasn’t all good news: Knight stated that the new series’ scripting had been completed, but filming wouldn’t begin until late 2019 or even early 2020.
In the meantime, the vast majority of film and television professionals were dealing with You Know What. Filming on Taboo, on the other hand, had not yet commenced due to Hardy and Knight’s previously mentioned hectic schedules.
The fact that Hardy and his wife Charlotte Riley, who starred as affluent widow May Carleton in Peaky Blinders, welcomed a baby in January 2019 is another factor contributing to the show’s lag.
As a result, the pre-production phase of the project was put on hold.
In an interview with Esquire in August 2021, Hardy did provide some information about taboo.
He said, “The second season of Taboo is really, really important to me, and it’s taken a lot of thinking because I really enjoyed the first one and I want to be really fulfilled by the second one.”
“We’re still playing with ideas, you could go linear, a continuation of time, or we could drop prior to London [the first season began with Delaney returning to London after years missing in Africa], or we could quantum-leap through time! I don’t know whether to go orthodox – there’s a series of that already written – but I don’t know if that’s the right way to go.”
Hardy appears to have spent some time contemplating the series’ future.
He stated, “In my head, I was thinking, ‘Let’s say they get to America, they get to Canada, fast-forward to 1968, the Tet Offensive, the Vietnam War, look at the CIA, the Viet Cong, the French in Saigon…. Take the Delaney family tree out in the jungle, and recreate the same family dynamics that were happening in London but with new people, thinking about how history and corruption repeat themselves.
Hardy further added, “It’s still Taboo, it’s still period, but it’s the Sixties. There’s something fun about that. Or do we go back to the 1800s? The Napoleonic Wars? The American War of Independence? But nothing’s crossed my heart and mind and desk where I’ve gone ‘That’s it!’ so I’m hanging fire.”
Expected Cast of Taboo Season 2
Since the show was co-created by Hardy and his father Chips Hardy, the only guaranteed returnee is Hardy.
Oliver Twist and Bill Sykes, the BBC One drama in which Hardy played Bill Sykes, sparked the idea for the show, he told us in 2017.
Hardy said, “To be bluntly honest, I wanted to play Bill Sykes, Sherlock Holmes, Hannibal Lecter, Heathcliff, Marlow [from Heart of Darkness]… just every classical character in one.”
Asked by an interviewer why he has such an excellent working relationship with the show’s star, Knight gave an answer that might surprise you.
Knight said, “I think it works because we don’t socialize”. “We do occasionally but not very often. I think the relationship is totally about the work.” The great thing about Tom is that’s his passion, the work. The acting. He’s not a fan of celebrities. But he just loves to act. He loves the process and the craft.
“For me, to have him occasionally available to do roles that you’ve written is wonderful because you know you can trust someone to really deliver what you do.”
Mark Gatiss, Lorna Bow/Delaney, Stephen Graham, David Hayman, Edward Hogg, Jason Watkin, and Nicholas Woodeson are among the main cast members that could return.
It also includes Scroobius Pip and Roger Ashton Griffiths as well as the recurrent characters (Tom Hollander, Marina Hands, Lucian Msamati, and Louis Serkis), all of whom could return.
Oona Chaplin, Jefferson Hall, Leo Bill, Michael Kelly, and Jonathan Pryce, all of them died in the initial season and are unlikely to return unless they harass James Delaney from beyond the dead.
Expected Plot of Taboo Season 2
James and his remaining comrades sailed to America at the end of the first season, and since then, Steven Knight has teased us with hints about where the series may go from here.
Steven said, “In my mind, explosive stuff is going to happen, which will be great,” Knight said. “There’s a great destination for it, but I don’t know if we’re in a position to talk about the actual details of it.”
He commented that the second chapter, “heads west and becomes a little bit more narcotic, more opium-affected” in the second chapter.
Additionally, Hardy spoke to Entertainment Weekly about Delaney’s allies and the reasons why they are so attracted to Delaney himself.
Hardy said, “He’s assembled quite the diverse collective… There’s a strange nobility as well about that crew, the sort of not-so-polished members of society.”
“I think of the biggest things that we had in the original context of the series is that you realize that James is the least savage person in the room, whether around the company of the king. Those who are seen as more savage to those that are on the outside, those who are voiceless have kind of banded together to use their collective intelligence to become a force to be reckoned with.
“There’s something totally honest and noble about everybody who gets on that boat.”
This season of Taboo may concentrate around a US intelligence network known as “Colonnade,” according to Hardy.
He said, “When he says, ‘We are Americans’, James is very ambiguous with how much information he’s going to give. “In his mind, you will know when the time is right.”
Radio Times attempted to forecast what would happen in the second season of Taboo by looking at real-life incidents that occurred during this time frame.
It’s worth noting that the battle between Britain and the United States which was resolved in 1815, played a major part in season one.
Another possibility is that James will learn more about his American ancestry, possibly through interaction with his mother’s tribe. The truth behind James’ tattoo and the more sinister aspects of his background could be revealed in light of the events of this season.
Is There Going to Be Taboo Season 3?
In order to avoid staleness, Taboo will only run for three seasons, with Knight having a very clear vision of the show’s three-act structure in his head from the start.
‘The Escape’, ‘The Journey’, and the final ‘The Escape’ are all that remain in James Delaney’s murky universe unless Hardy persuades Knight to ditch the framework altogether and move the action a few decades or even a century forward.
In an interview, Knight explained that he had always intended to spread out Taboo’s tale over three seasons:
Knight said, “If we all stick with it and we all want to keep doing it, it would be three [seasons]. That’s my plan. Because I’ve got a geographical sort of route for the thing to take. It’s basically a journey west.”
“I have a destination in mind. Which is always nice to have if you’re setting off on this big journey, which is what writing three eight hours is. It’s good to know where you’re headed.”
Landgraf said, “It really just comes down to Tom”. “It comes down to what Tom wants to do when he wants to do it when he is available.
“We’ve talked about — and are still talking about — the possibility of doing a season of which Tom would be a part of but not at the very center of it.
“He seems very emotionally, very committed to this character, though, and very committed to this show. And Steven is still passionate and wants to write it, but It comes down to Tom’s availability.”
Trailer of Taboo season 2
There’s no trailer released as of yet for Taboo season 2. We’ll keep you updated as soon as it becomes available.
But if you haven’t watched the trailer for season 1, you can check it out below.
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Final Lines
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