NBC has ordered a short season of the fantasy pirate serial, Crossbones.
This will be the second pirate themed series coming this season, joining Starz’s Black Sails, announced last week.
Crossbones – the title refers to a design element typical of privateer flags – will follow the escapades of an assassin for the British government from the American colonies, sent to infiltrate the crew of the infamous Blackbeard in the Caribbean.
We’ve yet to learn of any concrete casting information, but we do have this new synopsis:
It’s 1715 on the Bahamian island of New Providence, the first functioning democracy in the Americas, where the diabolical pirate Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard, reigns over a rogue nation of thieves, outlaws and miscreant sailors. Part shantytown, part marauder’s paradise, this is a place like no other on earth – and a mounting threat to international commerce.
To gain control of this fearsome society, Tom Lowe, a highly skilled undercover assassin, is sent to the pirates’ haven to take down the brilliant and charismatic Blackbeard. But the closer Lowe gets, the more he finds that his quest is not so simple. Lowe can’t help but admire the political ideals of Blackbeard, whose thirst for knowledge knows no bounds – and no law. But Lowe is not the only danger to Blackbeard’s rule. He is a man with many villainous rivals and one great weakness – a passionately driven woman whom he cannot deny.
Ten episodes have been ordered, and production will not begin until the fall, which means a spring start, likely to be used as a mid-season replacement for whichever NBC show is doing the worst at the time.
