"Taboo" Renewed for Second Season

FX and BBC One Order Season Two of Drama Series From Executive Producers Ridley Scott, Tom Hardy and Steven Knight and Starring Tom Hardy

The First Season of Taboo Delivers 5.8 million Total Viewers Weekly on FX

LOS ANGELES, March 8, 2017 - Taboo, the drama series executive produced by and starring Tom Hardy, who also co-created the series alongside Steven Knight and Chips Hardy, has been renewed for a second season by FX and BBC One. The first season was among the highest-rated new cable dramas of the past year in the U.S.

"Taboo's first season was exceptional and its success on FX is testament to the creative excellence and dedication of the producers, cast and crew," said Eric Schrier, President of Original Programming, FX Networks and FX Productions. "We are proud to again join BBC One and Sonar Entertainment in partnering with Scott Free London and Hardy Son & Baker on the second season and look forward to working again with the great Tom Hardy, Steven Knight, Ridley Scott, Chips Hardy and everyone who makes Taboo so remarkable."

Across all linear and non-linear platforms, the first season of Taboo delivers 5.8 million Total Viewers weekly on FX.

"We are grateful and excited to continue our relationship with the BBC and FX in contributing towards British drama. Fantastic news," said Tom Hardy, Creator and Executive Producer.

Ridley Scott, Executive Producer, said, "We're thrilled people want to know what happens next and that the BBC and FX are up for more adventures with the devil Delaney and the league of the damned. Along with our international distributors, Sonar Entertainment, the BBC and FX have been great partners, supporting Taboo at every stage so it could be the dark, dirty brute of a drama that it is."

"I'm thrilled that a work which pushes boundaries has been so well received and found such a large and enthusiastic audience in the U.S. and Britain," said Steven Knight, Creator and Executive Producer. "We have tried to take an impressionistic, rather than figurative, approach to a narrative which we hope more accurately portrays the spirit of an extraordinary time in history. James Delaney will continue to explore many realities as he takes his band of misfits to a new world, thanks to FX and the BBC, partners who could not be more suited to collaborating in ground breaking work."

"I'm delighted we have the opportunity to build on what was achieved in the first series, and that we can continue to create breakthrough drama to intrigue and entertain," said Chips Hardy, Creator and Consulting Producer.

Set in 1814, the first season of Taboo follows "James Keziah Delaney," a man who has been to the ends of the earth and comes back irrevocably changed. Believed to be long dead, he returns home to London from Africa to inherit what is left of his father's shipping empire and rebuild a life for himself. But his father's legacy is a poisoned chalice, and with enemies lurking in every dark corner, James must navigate increasingly complex territories to avoid his own death sentence. Encircled by conspiracy, murder and betrayal, a dark family mystery unfolds in a combustible tale of love and treachery.

Taboo is created by Steven Knight, Tom Hardy and Chips Hardy, who is also the show's consulting producer. Executive producers are Ridley Scott and Kate Crowe for Scott Free London, Tom Hardy and Dean Baker for Hardy Son & Baker, and Steven Knight. Taboo is produced by Scott Free London and Hardy Son & Baker for FX and BBC One with Sonar Entertainment distributing worldwide outside the UK.

ABOUT FX

FX is the flagship general entertainment basic cable channel of FX Networks, a business unit of 21ST Century Fox. FX Networks is comprised of FX, FXM and FXX. Launched in June of 1994, FX is carried in 90 million homes. The diverse schedule features a growing roster of critically-acclaimed and award-winning hit dramas series, including The Americans, The Strain, Taboo, Legion and the upcoming Snowfall; the critically-acclaimed limited series American Horror Story, Fargo, American Crime Story, FEUD: Bette and Joan and the upcoming Trust; and acclaimed hit comedy series including the award-winning Louie, Baskets, Better Things and Atlanta. In 2016, FX received a basic cable record 56 Emmy(R) Award nominations and a basic cable record 18 wins, including 9 for The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. FX is the former home of the critically-acclaimed and award-winning hit drama series The Shield, Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me, Damages, Sons of Anarchy and Justified. The network's library of acquired box-office hit movies is unmatched by any ad-supported television network.

ABOUT SCOTT FREE LONDON

Scott Free London was set up by award-winning film-maker Ridley Scott in early 2010 to develop and produce UK-originated theatrical features and high-end television drama. January 2017 has seen the launch of TABOO, an 8x1-hour period drama written by Steven Knight, co-produced with Hardy Son and Baker and starring Tom Hardy for BBC One in the UK and FX Networks in the US, with Sonar Entertainment handling international distribution. Scott Free London's next theatrical release is Sean Foley's comedy MINDHORN, written by and starring Julian Barratt and Simon Farnaby, Studio Canal will release theatrically in the UK in May 2017, with Netflix handling the rest of the world. The company is currently in production on period drama The Aftermath for Fox Searchlight starring Keira Knightley, Alexander Skarsgard and Jason Clarke and directed by James Kent. INDIA IN A DAY, directed by Richie Mehta, is the latest iteration of the company's ground-breaking IN A DAY franchise, and premiered at the Toronto Film Festival 2016. Previous features also include Rowan Joffe's psychological thriller BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, and Christopher Smith's family comedy GET SANTA starring Jim Broadbent and Rafe Spall. Scott Free London has a number of feature and television projects in development, and operates in close conjunction with the London office of RSA Films, one of the world's largest and most successful commercial production houses, as well as its sister company Scott Free Productions in Los Angeles, California.

ABOUT HARDY SON & BAKER

Actor and producer Tom Hardy formed Hardy Son & Baker with partner Dean Baker in 2012. Since its inception, the company has focused on developing and producing bold, sophisticated, high-quality content for both film and television. HSB most recently partnered with Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions to produce the forthcoming drama series "Taboo," which debuted this month on BBC One in the UK and FX Networks in the US. Created by Steven Knight with Tom Hardy and Chips Hardy, the eight-part original series is Executive Produced by Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott, and Steven Knight. "Taboo" marks the first TV drama production to release under the HSB banner. The company previously produced the primetime documentary series "Poaching Wars" for ITV. HSB has an active film and television slate currently in development. On the feature side, upcoming productions include the highly anticipated screen adaptation of acclaimed comic series 100 BULLETS for Warner Bros/New Line Cinema, as well as the UNTITLED DON MCCULLIN PROJECT in collaboration with Working Title Films and based on the life of the legendary British war photographer. Both projects originated at HSB. On the television side, after striking a first-look deal with NBCUniversal International Studios in 2014, HSB is currently developing and producing several new scripted series intended for the US and International marketplace, including screen adaptations of "Pendulum," based on the crime thriller by Adam Hamdy, and "Trees," a science-fiction graphic novel series from award-winning comic book writer and New York Times best-selling author Warren Ellis and illustrator Jason Howard. A number of additional developments are in the works across both film and television with an array of talented filmmakers, writers, and artists.