Summary
- Black Sails
is a Netflix hit in the U.S., ranking ninth on the most-watched English-language shows chart for the week. - This streaming success has come seven years after the Starz show originally went off the air.
- This success may be attributed to the cast members landing prominent roles in popular streaming shows post-
Black Sails
.
Black Sails has become a Netflix hit. The show, which premiered on Starz in 2014, is a prequel to the iconic 1883 novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, incorporating many real-life pirates of the early 1700s into the story including Blackbeard, Jack Rackham, Charles Vane, and Anne Bonny. The show, which was co-created by Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine (who would later collaborate on FX’s Jeff Bridges show The Old Man), eventually ran for four seasons and 38 total episodes before going off the air in April 2017.
Netflix has now calculated their most-watched shows for the week of April 15 through April 21 in the United States. Starz’s Black Sails season 1 has landed at No. 9 on the chart after the show was added to the platform’s library. It has been able to chart in spite of the fact that much of the Top 10 is made up of hit Netflix originals including the limited series Baby Reindeer, The Circle season 6, and 3 Body Problem season 1.
The Stars Of Black Sails Could Be Driving This Streaming Success
The Black Sails Cast Has Only Risen In Prominence
The show’s Netflix success despite ending seven years ago may be driven by the fact that a large number of stars have gone on to even more prominent projects since 2017. This includes some members of the Black Sails cast making appearances in the hit Disney+ adaptation Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which was also co-created by Jonathan E. Steinberg. This includes Toby Stephens (who played lead character James Flint) as Percy’s father Poseidon, and Jessica Parker Kennedy (who played Max) as the sinister Medusa.
Although the cast has spread far and wide, they have almost all taken on a number of major roles in the meantime. This includes the late Ray Stevenson, who played one of the most notorious real Black Sails pirates, Blackbeard, later taking on the role of Baylan Skoll in the Star Wars spinoff show Ahsoka. Other stars found success on streamers outside Disney+, especially Billy Bones actor Tom Hopper, who went on to play Luther Hargreeves in Netflix’s superhero hit The Umbrella Academy.
Hannah New, who played Eleanor Guthrie, will also be part of a popular Netflix show when she joins the
Bridgerton
season 3 cast as Lady Tilley Arnold.
With so many Black Sails stars making a splash on streaming in the past seven years, it makes sense that the show would find a broader fanbase when it launched on Netflix. It remains to be seen if the show can climb up the chart, or if any further seasons join the list as viewers continue to binge. However, there is a chance the show’s Netflix success can rival its original run on Starz, potentially igniting conversations about a sequel or reboot.
Source: Netflix
Black Sails
Acting as a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Black Sails chronicles the story of Captain James Flint, detailing how Flint turned from a British Naval officer to a notorious pirate and his adventures with his crew in the Caribbean. Toby Stephens stars as Flint, and the series features many fictionalized versions of real-life pirates such as Anne Bonny and Blackbeard.
- Cast
- Toby Stephens , Hannah New
- Release Date
- January 25, 2014
- Seasons
- 4
- Streaming Service(s)
- Hulu , Disney+
- Writers
- Brad Kane