School! VikingsThe original cast is back together. Stars Travis Fimmel, Katheryn Winnick and Clive Standen reunited virtually at Comic-Con@Home on Friday, joining current cast members Alexander Ludwig and Jordan Patrick Smith to relive their favorite moments from the series.
Fimmel played Ragnar Lothbrok in the History series from the first season in 2013 until his exit midway through the fourth season. Standen, who played Ragnar’s brother Rollo, was a series regular from seasons 1 to 4 and made guest appearances in season 5, while Winnick played Lagertha until her character’s death in the first half of season 6. Ludwig and Smith currently star in Vikings like Lothbrok’s sons Björn Ironside and Ubbe.
The actors reminisced about the filming for almost an hour Vikings – check out the biggest revelations below.
Lagertha’s last line was the same one she said at her audition
As Winnick revealed, her character’s final line in Season 6, Episode 7 sounded familiar. “In my dreams, we are always together,” Lagertha says in a beautiful section as her body sinks to the bottom of the sea next to her beloved Ragnar.
“That was actually my line at the audition, so it’s come full circle,” she said at the panel discussion on Friday.
Travis only needed 3 minutes to memorize Ragnar’s farewell speech to Gyda
In Season 2, Episode 1, Ragnar bids a heartbreaking farewell to his deceased daughter Gyda – and according to Fimmel, it took just three minutes to memorize. He gives all the credit Vikings Creator and author Michael Hirst.
“It was so well written. Michael has three daughters. It was so beautifully written. I don’t know, but it took me about three minutes to memorize the whole thing, it was just so well written,” he said. “Always the best thing I can remember compared to other things… which aren’t quite as good.”
“As far as I know, you obviously don’t have any children,” Hirst added.
“I’m not sure either,” Fimmel joked hilariously, which made Standen laugh.
“I was literally thinking of a father talking to his dead daughter when I was writing it, and that becomes very powerful and meaningful to me. It seemed very meaningful to you from the beginning as well,” Hirst continued. “In terms of the show, it seems like a moment that’s fallen out of time… I felt like you were totally in the scene, that it meant something very deep to you, and I was very conscious of that.”
Intimate fight between Ragnar and Rollo in Paris inspired by Fimmel
Standen revealed that it was Fimmel who completely changed the fight between Ragnar and Rollo in Paris. The characters were supposed to go at each other with swords, but Fimmel suggested something more intimate. “Travis said, ‘This has to be between the brothers,'” Standen recalled.
“We agreed to get rid of the swords as quickly as possible and just hit each other,” he explained.
“I think the character hoped up until that moment that Clive wouldn’t follow him… he had a glimmer of hope that his brother wouldn’t betray him, and when that happened, his world was shattered and it was the beginning of the end of his drive,” Fimmel said of the effect that battle had on Ragnar. “I think he really regretted his life. … I think that’s part of the whole crime of power… none of it was worth it in the end. He left everything broken.”
“I think that was the first time in his life that he lost hope… and just had to get away. I think after he left, he decided he couldn’t leave like that,” he continued. “Michael wrote such a great ending where he comes back, it was the old Ragnar playing with people. He had such a great story arc and we’re so lucky.”
Smith was beaten up on his first day on set
Smith received a warm welcome when he joined the cast of Vikings in season 4. “I remember my first day on set because Travis punched me in the face 45 times,” he joked during the panel.
The actor knew he had “big shoes to fill,” so he just wanted to stand there and receive the warm welcome from his screen father. “He just kept going,” Smith said of Fimmel. “My ear was ringing for days afterward. It was definitely a Vikings Introduction, that’s for sure.”
Fimmel left the series shortly afterward, but Smith said he and the other actors who played Ragnar’s sons all incorporated parts of him into their characters. One thing Ubbe took from Ragnar was his sense of adventure, which fans will see more of in Season 6B.
There were great doubts about killing Ragnar
Hirst revealed that in his original plans for the series, Ragnar was supposed to die at the end of season one. Then it became immediately clear that there was more to tell. However, by the time season 4 rolled around, Ragnar’s arc had come to an end and his sons had taken over a larger part of the story. Hirst was ready to say goodbye to Ragnar, but still had doubts.
“Obviously there were plenty of dire warnings that the death of the main character would be damaging to the show. And it was a risk. I mean, Travis was a big personality with such a big reputation,” he said during the panel. “But I sold the show on the basis that it was about Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons.”
“Ragnar remained present in the rest of the show. He never really went away. … So it wasn’t a huge risk ultimately,” Hirst added. “But it was great to see these young actors come in and take their chances, and Alex act as a mediator between them. Alex had been on the show the longest at that point. In some ways, the show is more about his character than anyone else.”
Winnick’s casting was solidified in Lagertha’s fight scenes
Winnick is an experienced martial artist, but as Hirst explained, Vikings came together for the first season, they gave everyone they cast in the show a chance.
The actress said her final fight as Lagertha was “the most grueling and emotionally draining,” but also said her first fight scene in Season 1 was the most memorable.
“We have not Vikings in a conventional way, and we gave both you and Travis a chance. People who pay a lot of money to do these things get nervous about whether you’ve made the right decision,” Hirst told Winnick on Friday. “As for you and your performance, all that nervousness, all that fear melted away when the guys in suits saw you in that scene.”
Ludwig lost his voice during Björn’s big fight in season 5 – and they kept it on the show
“At the end of season five, when they lost and he was at the gates. Michael wrote such a great speech for it,” Ludwig said of the memorable moment when Björn tried to appeal to Ivar’s supporters.
As the actor revealed, he lost his voice “because I was screaming the day before and all day that day.” “When we gave the speech, I had no voice left,” he said. Ludwig was then supposed to re-record the speech in ADR, “but we thought we should leave it as it is because it is so heartbreaking.”
“That was a big part of the show for me,” he added.
The cast once banded together to control a director who said, “It’s just a show”
Hirst told a story about how it was Fimmel’s idea to say nothing about Ragnar for an entire episode – which amazed Standen how Vikings respected its cast and crew like no other production.
So it was rare that there would be a director on set early in the season who wasn’t particularly interested in Viking history – or what the cast thought about it. “I remember one day when … they wanted one of the extras to be beheaded on a block,” Standen said. He and other cast members, including Gustaf Skarsgard, confronted the director, saying that Vikings “don’t get sacrificed like that.”
“I remember the director saying, ‘It’s just a TV show! … How do you know all this about the Vikings?'” Standen recalled, adding that he told the director, “I read a book. And you?”
“We have done our research and it is important to us,” he added.
Standen is responsible for Judith losing an ear
While Hirst was always there to listen, Standen revealed he was too scared to share an idea with him – so he told the episode’s director instead. The idea? That Judith (Jennie Jacques) would lose an ear.
“Think of all the things you can do with it!” Standen told director Helen Shaver. “I remember Helen saying, ‘This isn’t your idea. Now it’s my idea!'”
Friday’s panel ended with a special sneak peek of Season 6B, which premieres later this year. And surprise – Björn is alive!
As fans will recall, Season 6A ended with Bjorn’s fate uncertain. His brutal fight with his brother Ivar the Boneless (Alex Høgh Andersen) seemed to end with Ivar stabbing Bjorn through the chest with a sword. “I wouldn’t be entirely sure they’re dead until you actually see it,” Hirst told ET in February.
Regarding the upcoming series finale, Hirst said he wanted to “make the end of the journey extremely worthwhile.”
“So many shows fizzle out, and I was determined that this one would have a strong, appropriate, satisfying ending, so that the whole audience would be happy with the ending of their favorite characters, whether they live or die, and they’d be happy with the logic and the emotion,” he said. “Because there are so many significant deaths, it was very emotional for me to write. I love these characters. Even some of the villains, and Harald Finehair is not the villain, but I love him so much, and I feel like I brought him back from the dead at least twice because I just couldn’t bear to let him go. So when I let characters die, it’s a big effort to let go of people I love and have spent a long, long time with.”
“I hope people are excited by the storyline,” he revealed. “There’s a lot of story left to tell. There’s a lot of surprises. There’s a lot of heartbreak and a lot of tragedy too. But at the end of it, I want people to feel that it’s absolutely and utterly satisfying. After 89 episodes, that’s what I really, really hope.”
Vikings ends later this year with Season 6B.
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