‘The Buccaneers’ Bosses Tease a Darker, Sexier Season 2 as Nan’s Torn Between Love and Duty
Two years may have passed in real time, but “The Buccaneers” Season 2 picks up just moments after we left Nan St. George at the altar. For the executive producers, the Season 1 cliffhanger was a luxury.
Wedding bells chime as the seemingly happy couple, the newly crowned Duke and Duchess of Tintagel, leave the ceremony, but Nan (Kristine Froseth)’s world has been turned upside down. To save her sister Jinny from her abusive husband Lord Seadown, she sends her away with the love of her life, Guy Thwarte (Matthew Broome). Now the duchess must contend with not only her duty to her new husband but also her duty to her title.
The executive producers said that they “love the love triangle” and clouding Nan’s judgment. Executive producer and writer Katherine Jakeways said that they diverted from the books in Season 1 because they wanted to make a more nuanced and surprising love triangle, not simply that the duke was the clear wrong choice, but in Season 2 Nan’s priorities have shifted.
“The love triangle in Season 2 becomes between Guy Thwarte and duty,” Jakeways told TheWrap. “She actually is really enjoying being a duchess and is very good at it, and gets this agency and this voice for the first time, which is quite thrilling and quite seductive to her, but her heart’s always going to be wherever Guy Thwarte is.”
Froseth, who plays the Apple TV+ series’ protagonist, echoed the sentiment that her title has uplifted her standing from an illegitimate American girl to an English duchess. For Nan this power is a privilege and a chance to make real change.
“Now she has the title of Duchess, and trying to navigate what that means for her and what she can do with that, and she starts to find her voice within that space, which I think is really exciting,” Froseth said.
She fights public scrutiny boldly by wearing a provocative red gown at the famed Black and White ball in the season premiere, shifting focus away from her sister’s disappearance.
“How she decides to try and challenge the patriarchy when she steps into the role of the Duchess is really bold and quite unheard of,” Froseth said. “Obviously, we’re not historically accurate, so it’s tricky sometimes to find that balance of where we’re going to be modern and where we’re going to be accurate. But I do think it’s a great depiction of looking back into history and seeing what was and how far we’ve come, or how much further we have to go.”
Even one episode into the second season, the heart of “The Buccaneers” remains rooted in sisterhood.
“She’s a changeable character, but the one absolute constant for her is Jinny,” executive producer Beth Willis said. “Despite what happened to them in Series 1, when Ginny, out of jealousy, told Nan that she was illegitimate, they are they are sisters through and through.”
The Season 2 premiere answered a long-standing question for fans of the series: who is Nan St. George’s biological mother?
Leighton Meester bursts onto the screen as Aunt Nell, Patricia St. George’s sister, who happens to be Nan’s mother. The creators had thrown Meester’s name around during casting, but were pleasantly surprised when the “Gossip Girl” star was as big of a fan of the series as they were of her.
“She turned out to have been a fan of the show, and she was so kind of generous about wanting to do it really quickly,” Jakeways said. “Nan is kind of feisty and and articulate and funny and brave and makes mistakes and isn’t always right, and we wanted her to feel like she was kind of part of that world.”
As for the future of “The Buccaneers,” the creators said that fans can expect many surprises this season and a slightly different tone.
“Loads of it’s sexier. It’s kind of more beautiful I think if that’s possible,” Jakeways said. “It’s got bigger themes. It’s a bit more grown up.”
New episodes of “The Buccaneers” will be released Wednesdays on Apple TV+.
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