Fans, sad over Vikings ending with Season 6, got news they needed earlier this week. Netflix announced it had picked up the spinoff, Vikings: Valhalla. To recap, the sequel series is set one hundred years after the events of Vikings. It will tell the tales of Leif Erikson, Freydis, Harald Hardrada, and William the Conqueror.
Based on that, it would seem that there could be a lack of familiar faces from Vikings in the spinoff. Well, Vikings’ creator Michael Hirst is teasing the recognizable presence of a certain fan-favorite. How? It makes a lot of sense. Despite the time jump, legacies live on! Teasing Vikings: Valhalla, Hirst told ET:
I'm very excited that we're going to move forward into exciting new places, and of course one of the big issues is the Christianization of the Pagan world. You're going to see Christian Viking armies fighting Pagan Viking armies, and that's really interesting. And [the show is] leading up to 1066 and the invasion of England by a descendant of Rollo. So you may well see the odd familiar face.
Rollo’s future on Vikings continues to be a source of mystery. However, his presence being felt in Vikings: Valhalla is a little less of one now. In dishing the historical context for the spinoff, Michael Hirst mentions Rollo’s descendant, who is involved in the invasion of England in 1066. Would great-great-great (you get the idea) Grandpa Rollo approve? On Vikings, he took part in the invasion of Paris, so, yes?
Moving forward, why not continue telling more stories in the age of Rollo's nephews? The spinoff will be skipping ahead a hundred years, which means they will have long since passed. The world they leave in their wake is going to be an ever-evolving one. Vikings’ creator explained why the spinoff opted not to continue the original's story, saying:
We decided that [Valhalla] couldn't continue from my show because I dealt, one way or another, with just about all my major characters, and I didn't want to invent new ones. Eighty-nine episodes, in other words, was probably quite enough from me. And so it's 100 years on... We start shooting next year, and I have a kind of oversight of it. I want to make sure that it'll still have the same visceral qualities, but I want to make sure it has the other qualities to distinguish the show -- that it's full of poetry and spirituality and also that you love the characters.
This sort of mirrors what Michael Hirst shared when the Vikings creator revealed why the show is ending with Season 6. On another note, an incredibly exciting tidbit he also shares is when filming for Vikings: Valhalla is going to start! Hirst does not specify the month. However, he does say it will start shooting in 2020.
The good news for fans of Vikings' storytelling is that the series’ creator says he will have “oversight” on the spinoff. I think that is so important when it comes to keeping creative cohesion in a franchise. In truth, it can be the make or break factor of everything. Thankfully, Vikings should have that consistency since Michael Hirst will remain involved with Vikings: Valhalla.
The Vikings spinoff has some considerable footsteps to follow. The original series is about to embark on the first half of its final season. There is a lot that needs to happen in its last chapter. Between the promotional pictures that have been released and the trailer that teases an epic clash between Ivar and Bjorn, it is going to be huge!
Vikings Season 6 begins on Wednesday, December 4, at 9 p.m. ET on History with a two-hour premiere. It arrives as one of this winter’s premieres. The Vikings: Season 5 Volume 2 Blu-ray/DVD set is out now!
