Taboo: Season Two? Tom Hardy & Steven Knight Are Confident

Will the Taboo TV show on FX be cancelled or renewed for season two? Co-creators Tom Hardy and Steven Knight seem quite confident a second season renewal is on the way and are already planning the new installment. The season one finale just aired on February 28th.

An 1800s period drama, Taboo stars Hardy as James Keziah Delaney. The FX cast also includes Oona Chaplin, Jefferson Hall, Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Graham, Michael Kelly, Jessie Buckley, David Hayman, Tom Hollander, Jason Watkins, Franka Potente, Ed Hogg, Leo Bill, Christopher Fairbank, Richard Dixon, Mark Gatiss, Nicholas Woodeson, Lucian Msamati, and Robert Parker.

Taboo Season One Ratings

Although it has been described as a mini-series, Knight has said he has plans for three seasons in all. Will Taboo even be renewed for season two? Well, its ratings are decent for an FX series, but they’re weak for a first season show.

The first season of Taboo averaged a 0.43 in the 18-49 demographic and a total audience of about 1.24 million.  Those numbers make it a top five show, where original FX scripted series are concerned.

FX co-produces Taboo with BBC One, which helps defray the cost, so a renewal is more likely than not. To stay up to date on Taboo cancellation or renewal news, subscribe to our Vulture Watch feature.

Taboo Co-Creators Confident About Season Two Renewal

Here is more from Entertainment Weekly:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This episode was a full-on bloodbath, in both an interesting and gruesome way. Knowing that the series would be leaving England, did you guys view this as a way to clear the deck?

STEVEN KNIGHT: In my forward thinking view of what this will be, I always thought we’re headed west. It’s a ship of fools, it’s a ship full of the damned, who are leaving the Old World and headed to a New World. They’ve almost self-selected because they are people who don’t fit in — they are rebels, people for whom that society doesn’t work, hence the line at the end, “We are Americans.”

TOM HARDY: I entirely agree. On a purely story note, I really wanted to see it being hard for them to actually make it to that boat and into the New World and the next season of Taboo. It’s very important to have this be a hard journey to get out of a situation. We lost a lot of people, whether they got killed or were left behind, which was important. Normally things are tied up in a very nice way or you know who is going to survive and who isn’t, but I think there was a sense of excitement in the storytelling process.

KNIGHT: It was kind of a bizarre evolution system.

Was it bittersweet to close this prologue chapter and move on from so many crucial characters and this world that you’ve built?

KNIGHT: I think that it’s very unusual to set up a world, which has been so well received and people love and are getting into, and now perversely we’re going to close it down and build another one. I think that’s the whole fun of it. That’s the thing about Taboo is that we break the rules and we’re not going to come back for more of the same. We’ve got the same characters, but we will be in a different world.

HARDY: And also in that tapestry, in that world, it’s great to see a full finish, to see some people die is really sad and to see who is going to make it through. It’s a natural ending to season 1, but it’s also the beginning [of] season 2, which is open to options and variables within the world. And you really never know in Taboo what’s happened, if people have died, or what’s gone on there. So definitely for me, I was just happy watching the episode and seeing the reaction in the U.K. and on Tuesday night in the States as well. I think that will be the last influx of that feeling, so that will be bittersweet. But that means season 1 is over [Laughs]. That’s it, I can breathe out now, it’s done.

[…]

Steven, you’ve told me about season 2 being the birth of a nation, but you threw a little bit of a curveball here with the next destination being Ponta Delgada. What can you say about where a possible season 2 is headed?

KNIGHT: I think we don’t talk about that [Laughs]. In my mind, explosive stuff is going to happen, which will be great, should it happen. 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.

HARDY: We’re onto the next stage. The key really is Colonnade. 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.

I know there hasn’t been any renewal announcement from FX or BBC, but do you feel confident that you will be able to tell the next chapter of this story?

HARDY: Oh god, yeah.

KNIGHT: All will be well.

What do you think? Have you watched the Taboo TV show? Do you think it will be cancelled or renewed for a second season?