Tom Hardy’s Taboo TV show gets a surprising season 2 update six years after season 1 aired. Produced by Hardy along with his father Chips Hardy and Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight, Taboo season 1 followed the exploits of James Delaney (Hardy), a brooding adventurer becoming embroiled in political corruption and violence in early 19th Century London. Featuring a compelling and mysterious lead performance by Hardy, the show developed a small but loyal following, and was ultimately renewed for a second season by BBC One. But now it’s been over five years since Taboo season 1 aired on BBC One and FX, and there have been few updates about season 2.

Even those who enjoyed Hardy’s brutal and dark performance in Taboo season 1 may have forgotten about the show by now, but nevertheless, Taboo season 2 appears to still be a possibility. Speaking to The Radio Times, Hardy’s producing partner Dean Baker says that work is under way on Taboo season 2. “Currently we are working on a second season of Taboo,” he confirmed.

Tom Hardy Has Some Crazy Ideas For Taboo Season 2

The long delay between Taboo season 1 ending and work moving ahead on season 2 is attributable to the difficulties of lining up schedules, given how busy Hardy and his writing partner Knight are. But Hardy himself has never given up on Taboo, calling the show “very important” to him. Indeed, the actor previously discussed his wild ideas for Taboo season 2, including one that would feature an insane time jump all the way to the 20th Century. As Hardy told Esquire back in 2021:

“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 Sixties. There’s something fun about that.”

Hardy also brought up the possibility of taking his James Delaney character into the Napoleonic Wars, or flashing back to the American War of Independence, or simply continuing on from where season 1 ended, with Delaney and his accomplices, including Jessie Buckley's Lorna, on a ship to America. It’s not yet confirmed what ideas would make up Taboo season 2, but Knight did say back in 2021 that the second season was mostly written, and that the key issue holding things up was Hardy’s busy schedule. Knight reiterated in 2022 that the hope was to get rolling on another season of Taboo in the near future, but again, Hardy's schedule was the hold-up.

It now appears that perhaps those scheduling issues have been worked out, and that Hardy and company are finally at work on Taboo season 2. It’s clear that Hardy has a passion for this material, and is ready to dive back into the saga of the Delaney family, and expand on it in some interesting ways. How long that saga could continue is not known, but Knight did at one point tease Taboo season 3 being the series' intended end-point.

Source: The Radio Times