As far as Hollywood hunks go, stars like Henry Cavill and Chris Hemsworth have their shirtless empire pretty down pat. Ahead of The Northman release, though, star Alexander Skarsgård is giving them a run for the superhero actors’ fitness skills. Because he’s looking pretty epic in the new poster for the film. Skarsgård appears both shirtless and completely ripped in the upcoming film’s new poster while he towers over the other stars of the Norse film.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve appreciated Alexander Skarsgård for the hunk that he is since back in his True Blood days. Even so, he went through a major transformation to play the lead in The Northman, and production seems to have taken full advantage of that by displaying him shirtless as often as possible. You can check out the just released poster of the star below, courtesy of Focus Features:
Okay, okay, so Alexander Skarsgård’s abs are pretty much fully blocked by the other characters in the film (they deserve credit too, of course). However, we totally know they are there and how impressive he looks in his fully transformed Norse body.
The Northman transformation aside, it’s almost like Alexander Skarsgård was made for this role. There are, of course, plenty of Scandinavian actors who would look awesome as a big, bad norseman, but Skarsgård has a serious history of playing ancient Vikings. His True Blood character was literally named Northman, and he was both an original and modern day Viking.
We didn’t see much Viking action in True Blood, though, and The Northman is a completely different side of Alexander Skarsgård in a Viking role, and honestly it looks pretty badass. He plays a Viking Berserker, and apparently some of the wild and primal scenes left Skarsgård pretty wrecked.
The other cast that can be seen in both the upcoming film and new poster for The Northman are pretty epic as well, honestly. You’ll see the familiar faces of Nicole Kidman, Willem Defoe, Ethan Hawke, among plenty of others.
From what we already know about The Northman, we can expect a pretty star studded revenge tale that centers on Alexander Skarsgård’s character, a Viking prince on his journey to avenge the death of his father. Robert Eggers is the director behind the film; he also directed big, dark movies like The Lighthouse and The Witch. His films are typically thought-provoking and well received, so that’s getting me pretty hyped for The Northman.
The Northman is steadily approaching in all its badass Viking glory, and will be released to theaters on April 22nd. With as sweet as the cast is looking in their new poster, I’m thinking the film is going to be pretty beautiful, especially if there is plenty of shirtless Alexander Skarsgård involved.
