The popular historical drama series Vikings may have ended after six seasons last December, but fans don’t have to wait for more stories in the same vein. The spinoff series, Vikings: Valhalla is coming to Netflix in 2022 and fans got their best look yet at the upcoming series during Netflix’s TUDUM global fan event on Saturday – including new footage from the all-new epic Vikings saga.
Vikings: Valhalla is described as a new saga beginning 100 years after the original series’ conclusion and will dramatize the adventures of the most famous Vikings who ever lived – Leif Eriksson, Freydis Eriksdotter, Harald Hardrada, and more. The series is set in medieval Scandinavia, near the end of the Viking era.
“That, of course, is the spiritual home of the Vikings. But it’s a changed Kattegat. It’s an established… It’s one of the biggest ports really, trading ports in Europe,” executive producer Michael Hirst previously told Collider. “It’s grown in size and significance. The King of England has become a Viking. The Vikings have overrun most of England and they own Normandy.’
Vikings: Valhalla stars Laure Berlin as Emma of Normandy, Sam Corlett as Leif Eriksson, Bradley Freegard as King Canute “the Great”, Frida Gustavsson as Freydis Eriksdottir, Caroline Henderson as Jarl Haakon, Johannes Haukur Johannesson as Olaf “the Holy” Haraldsson, David Oakes as Earl Godwin, Leo Suter as Harald Sigurdsson, Pollyanna McIntosh as Queen Ælfgifu of Denmark, John Kavanagh as the Seer, Paaru Oja as Arne Gormsson, Bosco Hogan as Æthelred the Unready and more.
The series is created by Jeb Stuart and Vikings creator Michael Hirst. They will executive produce along with Morgan O’Sullivan, Sherry Marsh, and Alan Gasmer. The original Vikings debuted on The History Channel in 2013 and ran for six seasons. The back half of Season 6 was released on Amazon Prime Video on December 30, 2020. The series was inspired by tales of the Norsemen of early medieval Scandinavia.
While Vikings: Valhalla is a spinoff of Vikings, Hirst has previously explained that viewers will not have had to seen Vikings to enjoy the new series – though it certainly won’t hurt.
“What Jeb [Stuart] does actually is he pays attention to the mythology of the Vikings,” Hirst said. “So whenever they meet in the great hall in Kattegat, and of course they talk about the great eras who used to sit in the same hall at the same table, and they were Ragnar Lothbrok, Lagertha, and Bjorn Ironside, and Ivar the Boneless, who are now mythic characters even within the show, even within Vikings: Valhalla. That’s a really great connection and effect. It gives ready-made histories to the new show.”
He added, “So you don’t need to know who Ragnar is to watch the new show. But it enriches the show and it hopefully will make people go back and find out, ‘Well who are these people they keep talking about? Was Ragnar so great? Why are these people mythic characters?’ So everything connects in a useful, and interesting, and fascinating way.”
Are you excited for Vikings: Valhalla? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
