Vikings creator previews upcoming spinoff series, Valhalla

The original show is officially over, but there’s a Vikings spinoff coming to Netflix, and sooner than you’d think.

The final 10 episodes of Vikings are now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, and they promise the biggest battles yet, as well as more adventures to Iceland, Russia and beyond. But after Vikings brings an end to the epic, long-running saga of Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons, Netflix is treating us to an entirely new Viking adventure with their upcoming spinoff series, Vikings: Valhalla. So what is the spinoff about? Vikings creator Michael Hirst talked about it with Collider.

To start, although Hirst is on board as an executive producer, Vikings: Valhalla is written by Jeb Stuart, known for writing action films like Die Hard and The Fugitive. The show will take place around 100 years after the events of Vikings season 6. This means it can introduce us to more iconic Viking explorers, maybe even Leif Erikson, the first Viking to step foot in North America.

It was a no-brainer for Netflix to greenlight a spinoff to the History show. “Apparently, they just said, ‘Look, we’re not even going to filter out content, we just looked at your audience figures, where you are across the world, and we’d be stupid not to do it,'” Hirst explained. “So it is a tribute to what was achieved over the last seven years.”

Given the time-jump, Vikings: Valhalla will feature a whole new cast. Hirst even dropped a couple of names. “It involves Harald Hardrada, and Eric the Red, and perhaps some slightly more familiar Viking names.”

Harald Hardrada was the King of Norway from 1046 to 1066; he laid claim to both the Danish and the English thrones in his lifetime. Eric the Red was a Viking explorer who founded a settlement in Greenland. Interestingly, there is already an Erik the Red in Vikings — could it be someone different in the spinoff?

While the spinoff looks forward to the next generation of famed Vikings, it will continue to honor the rich mythology Hirst created with the original show. “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 said, Hirst confirms that you’ll be able to watch the new show even if you’ve never seen the old one. “[Y]ou 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.”

It’s not Vikings without Kattegat, the home of Ragnar and his sons, which has become something of a character itself. Every season we see it grow and develop. In Vikings: Valhalla, it will return, but things will look very different after 100 years:

"It is being made in the same places, a lot of it. We go back to Kattegat. 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. 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."

You’ll also be delighted to know that the series has already finished filming. “They’ve shot the first season in Ireland, back at the same studio in remarkable circumstances,” Hirst revealed. “They had like 30 COVID workers. They took over a big hotel so they could quarantine all the actors. They tested them twice a day. It was a remarkable achievement.”

So when will Vikings: Valhalla air? 

We can expect the spinoff to air sometime in 2021. When it drops, it will be on Netflix, not History or Amazon Prime Video, where you can watch the final season of the original show right now!

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