'Our Flag Means Death' Fans Bring Series Back To Life With Fan-Made Episode
The 'You Only Frame Twice' project was powered by fan love
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Fans have been creating work based on their favorite art for centuries, from the fan-made stories about Gulliver’s Travels in the 1700s to fanfiction and fan zines about Star Trek in the 1960s. Pop culture often inspires emotional attachment and sparks creativity, conditions that lead to the creation of fandom.
A contemporary fandom that perfectly exemplifies these conditions, the community surrounding the HBO Max series Our Flag Means Death continues to generate art, conversation, and camaraderie despite the show’s short run. The show premiered in 2022 without much fanfare, eventually becoming a sleeper hit as viewers (particularly queer and trans folks) discovered its existence. Set in the early 18th century, the series follows a ragtag crew of pirates and their exploits across the high seas. It features multiple queer characters and characters of color, including a non-binary character, and the fandom reflects this diversity.
The show exploded in popularity mainly through word-of-mouth recommendations, and its second season premiered in October 2023. Sadly, HBO canceled Our Flag Means Death in January of 2024, leading to despair and outrage among viewers.
Shortly thereafter, fans created an online campaign to renew the show, using hashtags like #DontStreamOnMax and #FireDavidZaslav (the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery) to express their disappointment and hold the network accountable for canceling their most diverse shows. Though the campaign didn’t bring the series back to life, it generated visibility and strengthened the bonds between the fans involved.
Over a year later, fans are still just as devoted to the show as they were when it was on air, and online fan activity and fan works abound. Most recently, a group of fans created an animated version of an Our Flag Means Death episode called You Only Frame Twice. Based on a story by OFMD creator David Jenkins, which he posted in a series of threads on Bluesky, the episode takes place during the never-realized season three.
Jenkins concluded his thread in February of 2025, and the video was released at the end of Pride Month. You Only Frame Twice takes the form of an animatic, which means it's comprised of hundreds of drawings edited together in a flipbook animation style. More than 100 fans contributed to the project, working as background artists, foreground artists, voice actors, a sound team, and a video team. I spoke to the co-captains – LibRoseITM, Juniper, Lizzy Leo, and tresdem – about these collaborations and how it all came together.
Lib, who came up with the idea for the episode, was inspired by an animated video called Animate-A-Grump, created by the GameGrumps on YouTube. The video features the work of dozens of aspiring animators who each produced a few seconds of the 17-minute-long video. When Jenkins posted his story, Lib thought of all the talented artists and creators in the OFMD fandom and decided they should make a video of their own.
Logistically, this was a huge undertaking. Juniper handled the organization and created eight different spreadsheets to keep track of all the collaborators. They told me they spent at least an hour each day “checking in and making sure everything was running properly.” Some of the artists were tasked with creating the backgrounds for the episode, while tresdem made character designs that artists used as starting points.
They created a script based on Jenkins’ episode outline, but rather than putting together a storyboard, Lib decided to leave things more open, relying on tresdem’s character sheets for cohesion. “We wanted the artists to have complete creative freedom,” they told me. As a result, the episode features many different artistic styles and interpretations of the script while still adhering to the story. The fingerprints of every fan who worked on the project are clearly visible in the final product.
While it was a ton of work, the co-captains pointed out that they find creating fan works to be a rewarding experience. Juniper told me that they create first and foremost for themselves, but that creating within fandom makes the experience even more pleasurable. “I get to bring joy to myself AND others, and that just reflects more joy back to me,” they explained. “It’s about belonging to something,” Lib shared, quoting a line from the final episode of the show. tresdem told me she loves seeing everyone’s interpretations of the material, while Lizzy described her love for the “positive feedback loop” of fan creation.
This idea of belonging and community drove much of the project. The captains also told me that the episode was meant in part as a gift for Jenkins – known as “Pirate Daddy” among fans – in thanks for the care he’s put into the show over the years. Jenkins saw the video as intended, writing “Jfc what a fandom” on Bluesky. The crew wanted to bring joy to the fandom and create tangible evidence of how much the show and the fandom mean to them.
Fans took this message to heart, and Lib told me responses to the project have been “overwhelmingly positive.” Fans were surprised by the length of the video and all of its elements, including the soundtrack and the Foley work. Lib noted that some fans even gathered together to watch the episode on their televisions, and Lizzy shared that folks outside of the fandom watched the video and commented on its quality.
Media of all sorts inspire fan works, but it's no coincidence that such an impressive project came out of the OFMD fandom. When I asked the group why they think the series has generated this passionate fandom, they had several explanations. Juniper pointed to its representation and earnestness, noting that the show doesn’t take itself too seriously and “isn’t afraid to be earnest, even to the point of being a little bit (or a lot a bit) cringe.” Lib told me that “the story and characters really lend themselves for fanfiction and fan theories,” and “it's almost like the show is designed for us to be creative with it!” tresdem noted that the cast and crew have been very responsive to fans, and “It's become less a we create/you watch and more of a conversation.”
The creation of the episode indicates just how meaningful this fandom has become to folks. Juniper told me that the fandom has “changed [their] life entirely,” describing the space as both “queernorm and “transnorm,” meaning the majority of fans are queer and/or trans. The support of the community inspired Juniper to fully come out to their coworkers. Lib echoed these sentiments, noting that they’ve “made close meaningful relationships” through the fandom and and that it’s significantly improved their life. The fandom has taken the show’s emphasis on found family to heart, as evidenced by the collaborative nature of the project and how the fandom functions as a welcoming space for many. When asked to describe the meaning of the OMFD fandom, Lizzy put it like this: “It’s the shape of love.”
Wow this is so beautiful! Have to say I teared up a bit, it's so incredibly lovely that they were able to pull this off and just goes to show how much love the show inspired
Amazing!