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Netflix has announced the full cast for Vikings: Valhalla, the upcoming spinoff/sequel series to the hit History show Vikings. The new series will be set over a hundred years after the original, headed up by Jeb Stuart (Die Hard) and overseen by Vikings creator Michael Hirst. Vikings: Valhalla began production in the fall of 2020 and is planned to release exclusively on Netflix later in 2021.

The original Vikings series quickly became a cultural phenomenon after it began airing in 2013. In the era of Game of Thrones, the show offered a similarly epic setting and storyline with more historical foundation than George R. R. Martin’s fantasy world. That’s not to say that the series was always historically accurate of course. Vikings played fast and loose with real-life figures and actual events, creating a blend of historical inspiration and compelling fictional narrative that appealed to a broad range of fans.

With the original series finally having ended at the end of 2020, fans are now looking forward to the follow-up on Netflix. A recent press release announced the full cast for season 1 of Vikings: Valhalla, which includes Sam Corlett as Leif Eriksson, Frida Gustavsson as Freydis Eriksdotter, Leo Suter as Harald Sigurdsson, and Bradley Freegard as King Canute. Other cast members include Jóhannes Jóhannesson as Olaf Haraldson, Laura Berlin as Emma of Normandy, David Oakes as Earl Godwin, Caroline Henderson as Jarl Haakon, Pollyanna McIntosh as Queen Ælfgifu, and Asbjørn Krogh Nissen as Jarl Kåre.

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Vikings: Valhalla will center on famed Viking Leif Erikson, telling the story of the Viking era’s gradual decline and the proliferation of Christianity through Scandinavia in the 11th century. The old Norse pagan beliefs and mythology of different Viking groups played a key role in the original series, and the clash between old and new invading religions should set an interesting and tense backdrop for the action of the series. Though all of the Vikings characters will be dead by the time the new show starts, their legacy will surely carry on into the story of Valhalla.

Netflix is solidifying themselves in the medieval/fantasy TV space with Vikings: Valhalla, which only add to the streamer’s existent success with The Last Kingdom and The Witcher. With Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series on the way and HBO working on the Game of Thrones prequel show House of the Dragon, the genre is about to become very competitive. Vikings: Valhalla will at least have the weight of the series’ fans behind it when it premieres on Netflix later this year.