‘Black Sails’ season 3: Zach McGowan on emotional Vane story

While the finale for “Black Sails” just aired a day ago on Starz, for the most part the buzz this season is still all about the dramatic death of the Vane character that happened in the penultimate episode. All of a sudden, someone who was once a huge part of the series is now gone.

Of course, the reality here for many is that this death was still expected, given that Vane’s story did end by hanging in real life, and his character had an expiration date from the moment that he walked on set. As a matter of fact, Zach McGowan told Digital Spy recently that he is shocked that his character lasted as long as he did. He also went on further to describe the process of saying goodbye to the character:

“It was discussed a lot. [Jonathan E. Steinberg, Robert Levine] and [executive producer] Dan Shotz… we all worked together for a long time and became very friendly, so we could all talk about it honestly and openly.

“From the beginning, I always said that Vane is willing to die, but he is never going to say he’s sorry for what he’s doing. So when we got to that eventual end, I was hoping that would be the case. That’s literally from the first meeting I ever had with them about the character. I always had this idea that he was this person who wasn’t afraid of death, who more than anything was wondering why he was still alive.

“It’s got that kind of tone to it – someone who’s been through so much and through so many battles in life, it’s no longer that he’s afraid of death, he’s almost like… how is it possible that I’m here? So we talked about that a lot and I was just glad that when the script came out, it was true to that.”

Vane is indeed going to be missed on the series, though at the same time we do still firmly believe that his character will not have gone in vain, and one way or another, will make his presence felt moving further into the future.