Taika Waititi's Daughters Were In OFMD, Did You Miss That?

Summary

• Our Flag Means Death S2E6 featured Taika Waititi's daughters Te Hinekahu and Matewa Kiritapu.
• The girls played two ragged children to whom Blackbeard gives money and knives.
• Their mother is Chelsea Winstanley, a well-known film producer and filmmaker.
• Waititi has previously filmed his children in his #DadsOnTour Instagram series and in Thor: Love and Thunder.
• Our Flag Means Death Season 1 featured Rhys Darby's son Theo Darby as the young Stede Bonnet.

How many times have you rewatched Calypso's Birthday? Actually, it's a rhetorical question, since we know that the number of times is probably not even calculable.

S2E6 of Our Flag Means Death is hands down one of the best of the entire series, and it gets even better when you learn some exciting behind-the-scenes trivia.

An inside joke that viewers missed

When watching a hilarious moment of Taika Waititi's Blackbeard 'changing the lives' of two urchins by giving them a huge bag of money and knives to protect it, and teaching them how to operate these knives, many viewers felt there was a wink-wink inside joke beyond the obvious humor of the interaction.

If you were one of those viewers, your gut feeling did not let you down. The second layer of humor is that the two raggedly dressed children are played by Taika Waititi's real-life daughters, Te Hinekahu and Matewa Kiritapu.

You have to agree that this fact makes the whole performance and interaction in the scene so much funnier, and the 'dirty little gutter rats' nickname Blackbeard gives the children so much more ironic.

Oh, and of course it explains why the younger girl played by Matewa Kiritapu looks so much like Taika.

Who is the sisters' mother?

Waititi recently tied the knot with Rita Ora. But Te Hinekahu and Matewa Kiritapu are from his first marriage to Oscar-nominated producer and award-winning filmmaker Chelsea Winstanley.

The ex-spouses married in 2012 and quietly split six years later, but continue to co-parent their adorable daughters. In 2022, Waititi ran an Instagram series called #DadsOnTour, in which he and his kids visited various locations in New Zealand, melting fans' hearts with their hilarious interactions and comments.

The director also filmed the two girls in Thor: Love and Thunder, where they portrayed kidnapped Asgardian children.

This is not the first time OFMD has featured its star's kid

The family surprises don't stop there. Rhys Darby's son Theo Darby played young Stede Bonnet in three episodes of Season 1. Remember the heart-wrenching scenes of poor, fragile Stede being abused by his father?

All this makes Our Flag Means Death a family affair and we are definitely here for it. The show's cast already feels like one big, tight-knit family, and the kids only add to that atmosphere. Not to mention that they are capable actors doing brilliant work. Do you agree?