One Season Taboo: But Tom has more walking to do...

Tom Hardy characters always have a great walk. Let’s just start with that. His character’s pace, stroll, stride, saunter, swagger, stagger, limp, crawl, march, charge…or whatever else the occasion demands. One thing is certain - Tom Hardy characters seldom sit. And if they do, audiences never wait long before Tom’s legs inevitably rise again, carrying forth his torso into further thespian adventure. Speaking of waiting, there is something that Tom Hardy has kept audiences waiting on for some time now - a second season of the TV series Taboo.

Often lost in his long and celebrated list of acting credits is his starring, producing and writing role on the 2017 BBC television drama. That’s not to say there isn’t a devoted audience that watched and loved the first season of Taboo, but the show still remains relatively and surprisingly low on the radar - even for Hardy fans. Those that recall the brooding character of James Delaney (Hardy) pacing, yes pacing, through the atmospheric coal-smoke air of 19th century London, have been pining and suffering for a second season for 8 years now. Okay suffering is a bit of stretch. Perhaps I should just describe my own trials throughout these years of waiting. Okay, trials is also a bit of stretch. Where am I going with this...In a nutshell, I have a far more selfish reason for wanting the show to come back. More on that later…

Taboo begins in 1814, when the enigmatic James Delaney returns to England after twelve years in Africa, drawn back by the mysterious death of his father, a shipping merchant. In the waning days of the war between Great Britain and the United States, the show takes viewers into the grim and gritty underbelly of 19th-century London—a city choked by fog, rife with disease, and seething with corruption. Shadows stretch through alleyways teeming with crime, while opulent drawing rooms conceal sinister dealings. At the heart of this murky world, Delaney confronts the powerful East India Company, navigating a treacherous web of espionage, betrayal, and ghostly secrets, as he pits Britain against America in a high-stakes game of survival and revenge. And did I mention he does a lot of walking?…

The vital backstory in Taboo points a nautical compass in the direction of Vancouver Island, Canada - the location of a high-stakes title of land that is not only the prized possession of our main character, but is also hungrily sought after by some of the most powerful colonial players of the day. And here’s the frustrating part - though Delaney now owns the deed to this land, having inherited it from his father, he’s never actually been there himself. More to the point, he’s never set foot there. Not even a single step on a sandy seashore…

And now for the spoiler - the west coast of Canada happens to be where I grew up. So yes, selfishly and shamelessly, a second season that brings Tom Hardy to a part of the world where I’m from, would be the most important reason of all to bring the show back.

There is hope on the horizon. In fact, the BBC did issue an official renewal order for the series way back in 2017, before the long wait began. Season 1 was created by Hardy, his father Edward (Chips) Hardy and Steven Knight, as well as executive produced by Ridley Scott, Kate Crowe and Dean Baker. And it was Baker who provided some clarity on the situation in a 2023 interview, finally confirming that they were working on a second season.

More recent news has also been positive. In a 2025 interview, Hardy confirmed that Season 2 of Taboo is not only in development, but that he is also writing the show. Further clues were provided via MovieWeb, where Hardy discussed why it has taken so long between seasons: “I’ve been busy. Taboo is something that’s for me and my family. It’s something we wanted to take time to do properly. I’ve been working for the last seven years on Venom, so it had to take a little bit of a back seat, but it’s something that I’m very passionate about. So when I have the space properly to commit, I’d revisit properly. So it’s never been something that we didn’t want to do. It’s a question of when, and doing it properly.”

And then there there is the social media post that Hardy himself shared, featuring a striking image of a highly stylized ship surrounded by crows, sailing toward the horizon—a subtle nod to the Season 1 finale…

Here comes another spoiler… In the final scene of Season 1, James Delaney and his crew set sail aboard the Good Hope after a brutal gunfight with redcoats, narrowly eluding both the East India Company and the Crown. Instead of charting a course for Canada though, Delaney directs the ship toward the Azores, Portugal, where he plans to rendezvous with a mysterious figure known only as Colonnade. Why must he travel to Portugal you ask? I don’t have a good answer for that. I certainly know what destination I would prefer though.

Other than the Season 1 finale, plot details for Season 2 are scarce. But let me conclude by pointing out that the justifications for a Canadian visit are solid ones… There is of course Delaney’s father’s aforementioned land title. Specifically located in Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island, this area is called “Mowichat” by the Nuu-chah-luuth, the indigenous tribe that have lived there for centuries. Delaney’s own mother, an indigenous woman, was a member of this tribe. You might even call it a homecoming of sorts for Delaney, though admittedly the colonial implications of this are somewhat problematic. So is this photo perhaps…

The sins of colonialism are rife and rotten in Taboo, a subject that no doubt will be dissected further in a second season. But even with Season 2 confirmed, there is of course no guarantee that James Delaney will ever travel to Canada to satisfy this audience member’s wish. We may never get to see Tom Hardy walking through the rainforests of Vancouver Island, hiking through trails that open up to breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean, climbing over barnacled rocks or wading along a seashore brimming with sea life. We may never witness him running along the sandy coastline, a tall ship anchored in the water, a sun setting on the horizon in this amazing part of the planet.

But only Tom Hardy gets to decide where he walks. I've reconciled myself to this. And maybe he’s a little tired of walking. Did I mention it’s also great surfing?...