Vikings Season 6 Has Officially Been Ordered
History’s acclaimed drama Vikings has been officially picked up for season 6. Even though season 5 of Vikings doesn’t air until November, it’s no surprise that the series’ popularity and critical acclaim ensures it will continue to raid on with a two-part 20-episode season starting production this fall in Ireland.
The conclusion of season 4 of Vikings opened up a realm of new possibilities for the show’s characters — as Ivar the Boneless (Alex Høgh Andersen) took the reins as the fearsome leader of the Vikings, following the death of his infamous father Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel). The Vikings season 5 trailer showed both Floki (Gustaf Skarsgård) and Ragnar’s eldest son Bjorn Ironside (Alexander Ludwig) are getting ready to start their own adventures traveling around the world. The first look also offered another introduction of new opponent Bishop Heahmund, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and an all-out war between brothers for control over Kattegat.
With the upcoming season of Vikings set to be it’s biggest yet, with the series diverging from Ragnar’s story to focus on his band of sons, it’s no surprise that Eli Lehrer, History’s executive vice president of programming, is excited to see the series expanding to forty episodes over the next two seasons. Here is what he said in a press release from History:
“‘Vikings’ has creatively sailed to monumental lengths. The series has evolved from early raids in England, to the heart-stopping death of Ragnar Lothbrok, to the fierce battles of the Great Heathen Army, and now we’ll see the sons of Ragnar exploring and conquering the known world. Michael Hirst has only scratched the surface of his epic saga. We look forward to continuing our partnership with one of the greatest writers in this era of Peak TV and entertaining our viewers with 40 new episodes over the next two seasons.”
The press release also dropped some new details about season 6 including new information that series regular Katheryn Winnick, who plays shield maiden and Queen of Kattegat Lagertha, will direct one of season 6’s episodes, marking her directorial debut. Here is what series creator and executive producer Michael Hirst revealed about season 6 of Vikings:
“It has been my pleasure and my privilege to work with History and our partner MGM over five seasons and 69 episodes of ‘Vikings’. Now we are ready to begin production of a 20-episode Season 6 that will deliver a huge and unexpected revelation to our audience. There are many reasons why I love this show, not least for the commitment and creativity of everyone involved in making it, but perhaps even more important is the spirit that drives this production – one of the happiest, most collaborative and most authentic productions I have ever been involved with. And so we sail on.”
Considering season 5 hasn’t even aired yet, we can’t even begin to fathom what the “huge and unexpected revelation” is going to be for audiences. In the past, Vikings has been known for making some shocking moves — especially when it comes to killing off its characters. Just last season we saw the deaths of some pretty major players including Aslaug (Alyssa Sutherland), King Aelle (Ivan Kaye), King Ecbert (Linus Roache), Sigurd (David Lindstrom), Helga (Maude Hirst) and, of course, Ragnar. So we can only imagine what unexpected revelation is going to rock the Vikings’ world when season 6 arrives.
