The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die is a muddled epilogue to an incredible show

The Last Kingdom should have finished with a sixth season instead of a film

Overall, the general feeling that I took away from Seven Kings Must Die is that I wish producer Carnival Films and Netflix had opted to make a full sixth season of the series, or even a shortened half-season, rather than a two-hour special. Seven Kings Must Die watches too much like a highly condensed season of TV rather than a proper movie.

The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die is like an epilogue to the series, but one which doesn’t entirely land because most of the emotional payoffs to the story happened in season 5. Those payoffs were often meticulous and hit on long-running plot beats, paying off years of foreshadowing and character development. The movie just can’t manage that with its shorter runtime.

The cast of The Last Kingdom is great, and any characters from the show who appear in the film are a blast to watch. The problem is that Seven Kings Must Die is missing a ton of cast members from the original show, and their absence is really noticeable. King Edward (Timothy Innes) dies offscreen. Ælswith (Eliza Butterworth), Ælfwynn (Phia Saban), Eadith (Stefanie Martini) and Hild (Eva Birthistle) don’t appear at all. Neither do Uhtred’s children Stiorra (Ruby Hartley) and Oswald (Finn Elliot), though the latter does at least get a mention. Queen Eagdifu is recast; she was played by Sonya Cassidy in season 5 and Elaine Cassidy (no relation) in Seven Kings Must Die.

Eagdifu’s recasting is interesting. Elaine Cassidy is seven years older than Sonya Cassidy, and her costuming and makeup makes it clear that this is an older version of the character. This wouldn’t be worth mentioning, except that the show has notoriously avoided aging up Uhtred and his companions, so it’s odd that it goes out of its way to age up the only female lead character in the film.

What makes Uhtred’s lack of aging even more baffling is that the plot of the film somewhat hinges on the fact that he’s getting old. It’s stated more than once that he might be past his prime, and there are one or two instances where Uhtred is caught unawares in a way that he might not have been as a younger man. Despite this, the only real attempt to age up Dreymon is that his various wigs are slightly more unkempt. It’s puzzling, especially considering the epilogue-style nature of the film, where it would have been easy to get away with finally giving Dreymon some gray hair and winkles.

There were other things I had qualms with, such as some of the film’s subtitles being more distracting (or even misleading) than helpful, but ultimately it doesn’t feel right to focus too heavily on them. Despite any issues I may have had, at the end of the day Seven Kings Must Die was a welcome opportunity to return to the world of The Last Kingdom. It may not be quite as good as the television show, but it’s still very much worth the watch.

Verdict

Seven Kings Must Die is a fitting epilogue to the tale of Uhtred of Bebbanburg, albeit one with issues. Fortunately, the blood of The Last Kingdom still runs strong; the cast brings their A games, the settings are gorgeous, and the story finally ties up the last loose ends of the tale. We got five great seasons of The Last Kingdom, and Seven Kings Must Die is a wonderful bonus for the fans that stuck with Uhtred for the whole journey.

Movie grade: B

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