We have been waiting a very long time for an update on Taboo season two and since producer Dean Baker gave us the news in 2023 that a second season was officially coming, we are still waiting for news. “Currently we are working on a second season of Taboo, and hopefully we will get to explore more Dickens [like Great Expectations],” Baker explained to the Radio Times last year.

Tom Hardy previously confirmed he would be returning to the show. So, as we wait for any new updates on Taboo season two, here’s everything we know so far about the upcoming series.

What is Taboo about?

In the world of period dramas, it’s not all elaborate ballgowns, stolen glances and gilded glamour. Oh no. When Taboo first landed on our screens, it was its grit, darkness and brooding nature that kept us avidly tuning in each week. The BBC drama had all the stuff of TV series dreams: conspiracies, murder, an enigmatic protagonist – in the form of Tom Hardy, may we add – and a plotline that kept us guessing.

Set in 1814, Taboo follows James Keziah Delaney (Hardy), a man who has been to the ends of the Earth and comes back irrevocably changed.

James has been believed to be dead for a long time and upon his return home to London from Africa, he wishes to inherit what is left of his father’s shipping empire and rebuild a life for himself. But what ends up unfolding is a tale of stolen diamonds (that Delaney brought from his travels around Africa), political corruption, gangs and much more.

So, what storylines will Taboo season 2 focus on?

The drama enraptured viewers when it first aired back in 2017 and over the last few years, it’s landed on streaming platforms and acquired a wealth of new fans. But the season one finale left us with a wealth of unanswered questions. Questions such as, say, what happened to Zilpha Delaney (Oona Chaplin)? Who is the mysterious Colonnade, and what does he mean to James? And did everyone survive the bloody battle between James’s crew and the redcoats?

While we don’t know the answers (yet), series creator Steven Knight has promised: “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.”

Hardy, meanwhile, has shared his own ideas for the show’s second run, telling Esquire: “We’re still playing with ideas: you could go linear, a continuation of time, or we could drop prior to London, 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.

“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 repeats itself. It’s still Taboo, it’s still period, but it’s the 60s. There’s something fun about that.”

Hardy added: “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.”

Who will star in Taboo season 2?

While casting and all those other juicy details are yet to be confirmed, we do know that the first series boasted an ensemble of familiar faces. Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter), Stephen Graham (Boiling Point), Oona Chaplin (Game Of Thrones) and Jonathan Pryce (Evita) all made up the cast, so who knows who will be making an appearance in the upcoming series.

One thing’s for sure, though: Hardy will be back.

When can we watch Taboo season 2?

In November 2021, Knight, who is also responsible for hit TV drama Peaky Blinders, revealed that the second season was mostly written, and that that production was primarily halted by Hardy’s busy schedule.

During an appearance at the Creative Cities Convention in Digbeth, Birmingham, however, he revealed: “[Tom and I] are both keen to continue and there are lots of people who want us to continue in that direction. It’s been a question of schedules and deciding where it goes next.”

As mentioned already, we know that production may have begun on the series, but there is still uncertainty around when exactly it will be landing on our screens.

Image: BBC