Writer Michael Hirst talks about the closing act of his Northman saga.
EW spoke toVikingscreator Michael Hirst about the end of his saga.
Anyone waiting to watch the series on History in 2021 be warned there areSPOILERS AHEAD.
Credit: Amazon
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:Years ago, you told me the last shot ofVikingswould be when the Vikings saw America.
MICHAEL HIRST:That evolved.
I wondered whether Floki might die.
Can you talk to me about rediscovering him in this final phase?
He’s been a very extreme character.
He never did anything modestly or simply.
I always called him a pagan fundamentalist, pushing himself to the limit on each occasion.
Which I’ve always felt was one of the reasons I could allow him to survive extreme situations.
I knew he would turn up in the New World.
He was too important of a character to just leave him at the bottom of a volcano.
He’s like the soul of the show, in some way.
I had to finish his story off in a satisfying way.
I think he has found peace.
Which is actually a quote from a Robert Lowell poem called “Skunk Hour.”
Just inserted into the middle of the poem, it gives you a shiver.
I wanted him to say that, which I thought would be very honest.
But Gustaf didn’t want to say that, so I respected that.
He knows he’s dying, I think.
But he’s not so troubled.
He’s been a troubled soul for so many years.
it stressed him out, it devastated him.
He is quite a broken man, finally.
But, there is a gentleness to him, certainly, an acceptance, a mildness.
I wouldn’t mind going like that myself.
I can honestly say no.
I felt, in every case, that the storylines had run their course.
Take Lagertha, for example.
Lagertha had been through so much.
She wanted to retire from being Lagertha the great shieldmaiden and she wasn’t even allowed to do that!
She had to fight again.
And after that, there was nowhere for her to go.
She’d been so fundamental to the story.Vikingshad a more-or-less 50-50 male-female audience.
I think that was largely due to Lagertha.
So I wanted to give her an amazing funeral.
And obviously, I always knew that Ragnar was going to die.
This was the Saga of Ragnar and His Sons.
My very first outline of the show, Ragnar died at the end of season 1.
He actually died halfway through season 4.
So he hung around a long time.
Can you talk a bit about the upcoming spinoff,Vikings: Valhalla?
It’s set 100 years from my show, and it features actually some more famous Vikings.
People might have heard of Harald Hardrada and Erik the Red.
It’s a new kind of heroic age, a very different canvas.
The Christians and the Christian Vikings are making huge headroads.
What Floki always feared is coming to pass.
It’s a great tribute to the show, I think, that Netflix wanted to do a spinoff.
That optimism faded throughout Ragnar’s life into the wars that dominated his sons' generation.
Did you always intend for the second half of the show to move into a violent, dark phase?
It was where the story led me.
I recognized that Ivar was going to take me down some dark paths.
So we saw the worst in Ivar.
But these last ten episodes give him a chance at some kind of redemption.
He’s slightly paternal towards the boy.
I see that as a very positive shift.
I was thinking about Bjorn, too.
Things haven’t always worked out for Bjorn.
I know he’s done sort of heroic things.
He sailed around the Mediterranean.
He’s become quite iconic.
But he screwed up in so many ways.
He was a very bad ruler.
He’s made some very bad choices, very bad decisions.
And he was just terrible with women.
But I think he’s given this chance to redeem himself by saving his people.
