The Last Kingdom producers discuss ending the series right

The fifth and final season of The Last Kingdom arrives on Netflix this week! The streamer has been releasing images, trailers, and voluminous interviews with the crew and the cast. We’ve gathered several of crew interviews together below, so you may read and get hyped.

Executive producer Nigel Marchant says The Last Kingdom movie will stand on its own

How was Season 4 left:

We left season 4 with Edward, and with the help of Uhtred, retaking Winchester. Uhtred being asked and assigned to raise Aethelstan – Edward’s illegitimate son – and taking him into care and training him as a warrior. We leave Brida at her lowest ebb having been betrayed by Sigtryggr and Haesten, she swears absolute revenge on Uhtred. While Uhtred is fundamental in helping Edward reclaim Winchester and, inevitably, the throne.

What is Uhtred’s journey in Season 5?

In season 5 we look at the two different central themes that run throughout the books and the TV show of Uhtred and his own destiny, his own quest to reclaim Bebbanburg, his ancestral home. The first is the inner conflict between him, as he sees it, being both a Dane and a Saxon and then the second about forging the separate kingdoms to become England. We see the change from the beginning of the series, the last kingdom being Winchester and Wessex, everywhere else was overtaken by Danes. We then have both Mercia and Wessex sworn together, and Northumbria being the last kingdom still to come under the reign of Edward.

On the new characters in Season 5:

We discover Aethelstan, who we met in season 4 as a young boy, now on the cusp of adulthood. And he becomes a much more central figure. We also have Constantin, who is the Scottish King, and the new character Father Benedict, a well-travelled priest, who arrives under Aethelflaed’s guidance to try and keep law and order in Rumcofa, where Uhtred and Aethelstan are protecting the border and living an easy life. He is a good man, but in a difficult position, and is being used to gather information for Aethelhelm. Aethelhelm is scared of what right Aethelstan might have to the throne. As such, he is trying to support his own grandson and becomes much more scheming throughout the series trying to protect his own legacy, through his grandson.

We will also have a new character called Eadgifu, who comes from Kent. A lady there, her land’s been taken, she comes to court, and we start to see the complexity of her emotion and Edward’s come together. She becomes a real voice of reason for Edward to talk to.

On Alexander directing:

We were thrilled that Alex directed an episode, certainly last season he had expressed an interest in moving in that direction. It’s always incredibly hard for an actor to then direct themselves and find the time to direct an episode. He is a lead, and although it’s an ensemble, he is in everything. So to try and find space to do two jobs is always tricky, but episode two felt like the right place. He had proper prep time to work on the episode, breaking it down, and he did an amazing job. It was lovely to be able to do that, to enable him to direct, and he did a really good job.

What are you thoughts on making the final season and the movie:

Fairly early on when we spoke to Netflix about the fifth season, obviously season 4 had done really well, and we were really pleased it was in the top 10. In terms of season 5, we felt these two central strands of the story were coming together and it was the natural point to finish the TV series. Over the five seasons there was a very definite beginning, middle and end. So it was a group decision that we came to. However, we did know there were a few more books (not to spoil anything!) following on from where we get to at the end of season 5. So we did start to talk to Netflix fairly early about whether we could tell that end piece of the jigsaw so that it would feel complete. And it was felt that the movie version was the right format to do that. Season 5 does feel like the end of the TV series, and the movie will be much more stand alone. It’ll be an extra treat for the fans of the TV series, but you could also watch it even if you’ve never seen the TV show.

About filming the movie:

We couldn’t be more thrilled that Netflix have allowed us to come back and shoot this movie version and to reunite with so many friends, both amongst the cast and crew. We started at Carnival developing the show a decade ago, we’ve been filming for eight years and just to finish it off in such a special way, we all feel very grateful that we have been allowed to do this.