Paul Wesley Trades in Captain Kirk For a "Bad-Boy Duke" in Apple TV's Hit Historical Romance

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Published Feb 27, 2026, 11:30 AM EST

A cinematic obsessive with the filmic palate of a starving raccoon, Rob London will watch pretty much anything once. With a mind like a steel trap, he's an endless fount of movie and TV trivia, borne from a misspent youth of watching monster movies on TV, perusing the sun-faded goods at the local video rental shop, and staining his fingers with ink from the Video Movie Guide. Areas of interest include science fiction, film noir, horror flicks, '70s disaster pictures, Bond movies, '90s action, giant robots, dinosaurs, super heroes, and the exuberantly schlocky output of Cannon Films. He also enjoys both Star Trek and Star Wars when they're good, and maybe even more when they're bad. As a Canadian, he also has a vested interest in Canadian movies and TV shows, especially the cheesier ones dubbed "Canuxploitation."

An expert on Marvel Comics, he has also written for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and is a member of the Marvel Research Team. He can frequently be found pontificating on comic-book continuity or bemoaning the misfortunes of the Toronto Maple Leafs on his Twitter account.

A new landlubber is set to join the crew of The Buccaneers. Luckily, he has experience being a captain already. A crew member from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' will be joining the cast of the AppleTV historical drama series for its third season. The first two seasons of the series are streaming on AppleTV, and the third is now entering production.

Paul Wesley is set to play Frank, a mysterious stranger who finds himself in the orbit of Nan (Kristine Froseth, How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and her mother, Patti (Christina Hendricks, Mad Men). Wesley rose to fame playing Stefan Salvatore on the CW's long-running supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries. Recently, he's filled the yellow tunic of William Shatner and Chris Pine on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, recurring as James T. Kirk before his stint as captain of the USS Enterprise. That series still has two seasons to be released, but Wesley has also been mooted as the lead for a new spin-off series that would chronicle Kirk's early adventures as the Enterprise's captain.

What Is 'The Buccaneers' About?

A loose adaptation of the final novel by Edith Wharton (The Age of Innocence), which was posthumously published in an unfinished state in 1938, The Buccaneers is set in the Gilded Age of the 1870s. The book follows several young American women of means and ambition who travel to England to seek out husbands of noble lineage who have fallen on hard times. They include Nan, Conchita (Alisha Boe, 13 Reasons Why), Lizzy (Aubri Ibrag, Dive Club), Honoria (Mia Threapleton, The Phoenician Scheme), Mabel (Josie Totah, Saved by the Bell), and Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse, The Outpost). Season 2 featured the shocking reveal that Patti isn't actually Nan's biological mother; it was actually Patti's younger sister, Nell (Leighton Meester, Gossip Girl). Season 3 promises more drama, as the titular buccaneers search for the loves of their lives, even as their worlds are rocked by the arrival of "a new bad boy Duke."

The Buccaneers was created by Katherine Jakeways, who is also set to adapt the Barbara Taylor Bradford novel A Woman of Substance for the UK's Channel 4. It was renewed for a third season late last year.

The Buccaneers season 3 is now in production; no release date has yet been announced. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.