Paul Wesley Joins Apple TV’s The Buccaneers Season 3 as Mysterious Newcomer Frank

Period drama just got a pulse boost.

Paul Wesley is officially joining The Buccaneers for Season 3, and suddenly the corsets feel tighter and the stakes feel higher. Best known for brooding his way through supernatural romance on The Vampire Diaries and boldly going where few have gone before on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Wesley is trading fangs and starships for 1870s scandal. Honestly? It tracks.

Apple TV confirmed that Wesley will play Frank, described as a “mysterious but charming stranger” who enters Nan and Mrs. St. George’s world and promptly turns it upside down. If you’ve been watching The Buccaneers, you know that world is already hanging by a thread socially, romantically, and politically.

Inspired by the unfinished final novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton, the series follows a group of spirited American women who storm London high society with more ambition than patience. Season 1 delivered culture-clash fireworks. Season 2 sharpened the emotional blades with heartbreak, motherhood, jealousy, and legal warfare. Season 3 promises unity and retaliation.

And now there’s Frank.

The official tease paints him as enigmatic, but let’s be honest: when Paul Wesley shows up in a drama, he’s rarely just “a nice guy passing through.” Whether Frank is romantic temptation, strategic ally, or social disruptor remains under wraps. What’s clear is that his arrival coincides with a looming shakeup at Tintagel, where a new Duke threatens to destabilize everything the Buccaneers have fought to build.

It’s a smart bit of casting. Wesley brings built-in fandom and a knack for playing layered men who oscillate between vulnerability and danger. That energy fits seamlessly into a series that thrives on emotional volatility beneath polished exteriors. The show has always balanced lavish period aesthetics with modern sensibilities, and Wesley’s presence only amplifies that tension.

Creatively, the series remains in strong hands. Season 3 continues under creator Katherine Jakeways, with direction from Rachel Leiterman and Amy Neil, maintaining the glossy, fast-paced tone that has defined the drama’s success on Apple TV.

The first two seasons of The Buccaneers are already streaming, giving fans ample time to speculate about Frank’s true motives. Will he be savior, saboteur, or something far more complicated? If the series has proven anything, it’s that polite society is merely a façade and disruption is inevitable.

One thing is certain: Tintagel isn’t ready. And frankly, neither are we.