“Black Sails” will return to Starz for its third season on Jan. 23 when it adds a fascinating new character from history, English sea captain Woodes Rogers.
The network announced Tuesday it will debut the 10-episode new season at 8 p.m. CT Jan. 23. It also released new images from the pirate adventure series, including an image of new cast member Luke Roberts, who plays Rogers. The sea captain and privateer circumnavigated the globe between 1709 and 1711. Rogers and his ships, the Duke and the Duchess, captured several Spanish ships during Britain’s war against the Spanish.
Rogers was one of few sea captains at the time who stocked his ships with limes to help prevent scurvy. During the same expedition in February 1709, Rogers stopped on Juan Fernandez Island in the South Pacific Ocean near Chile to replenish his supplies of fresh fruit.
More impressively, Rogers found and rescued Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, who had been marooned on the island since 1704. Daniel Defoe was inspired by Selkirk’s story when he wrote “Robinson Crusoe.”
I wonder if “Black Sails” creators Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine will get all that in the Season 3 story.
Rogers shows up in the “Black Sails” Season 3 trailer, which you can watch by clicking the link.
“I am the next governor of Nassau, assuming I can subdue her,” he tells Eleanor Guthrie (Hannah New). “That’s where you come in.”
[Spoiler ahead!] In real life, Rogers became the first Royal Governor of the Bahamas. He served twice in the position, with a stint in a British prison for debt in between his terms. (This guy could have his own mini-series!)
Starz on Tuesday release images of returning cast members Toby Stephens as Captain Flint and Luke Arnold as John Silver.
The Emmy-winning series, set 20 years prior to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island,” . Here’s what Starz says about the new season:
Season 3 opens in the wake of the destruction of Charles Town, where the world lives in fear of Captain Flint. When his campaign of terror crosses over into madness, it falls to John Silver to locate the man within the monster. Meanwhile, with Eleanor Guthrie gone, Jack Rackham and Captain Charles Vane struggle to secure Nassau for the ages.
All are tested when a new threat arrives in Nassau, one the pirates could never have anticipated. It knows them. It understands them. And in the blink of an eye, it will turn them against each other.
Also joining the cast in Season 3 is Ray Stevenson, who plays the iconic pirate Blackbeard. Other returning cast members include Zach McGowan as Captain Charles Vane, Jessica Parker Kennedy as Max, Tom Hopper as Billy Bones, Toby Schmitz as Jack Rackham and Clara Paget as Anne Bonny.
If you want to catch up, the complete second season of “Black Sails” is available Nov. 3 on DVD and Blu-ray. Past seasons also are streaming on Amazon and Starz Play.