(History)

During a Comic-Con@Home panel session today, History released a trailer that teases the remaining 10 episodes of the Vikings TV series. The final 10 episodes of the TV show are expected to air later this year or early next year but a date has not been announced.

The panel features series creator Michael Hirst as well as actors Travis Fimmel (Ragnar), Katheryn Winnick (Lagertha), Alex Ludwig (Bjorn Ironside), Clive Standen (Rollo), and Jordan Patrick Smith (Ubbe).

In talking about the final episodes, Hirst said, “The characters who we all, including me, have grown to love will all have their fates decided. Whether they live or die is of course in the hands of the gods, although I had a hand in it too. I think the conclusion of this saga is deeply satisfying. A proper and meaningful ending. And I hope all our fans will feel the same way. I tried to do justice to all my characters and I hope I’ve succeeded.”

Here are some highlights from the panel, the teaser video, as well as video of the panel (the latter will be available for a limited time):

• About the death of Lagertha, Katheryn Winnick says: That last moment you did where Lagertha falls in the water and lands right next to Ragnar. And a little fun fact to the fans that last line “In my dreams, we are always together,” that was actually my audition line when I first tested as Lagertha. So it’s just full circle to see it all come back. 
• About the final scene where Ragnar is sitting at the water’s edge, saying goodbye to his daughter, Travis Fimmel says: I don’t know why, but it took me about 3 minutes to memorize that whole thing because it was just written so well. All the best writing, I can memorize like that. 
• About the fight scene between Ragnar and Rollo, Clive Standen says: The stunt team who were incredible in our show, they always came up with fantastic fights and they came up with a fantastic fight for Ragnar and Rollo. It was all swords and it was a very beautiful fight and Travis came in, and he was right, he just said “this needs to be the tension between the brothers. It needs to be the brothers and not one of them is going to go down until one of them is dead.” He showed some examples of fights and we arranged to get rid of the swords as soon as possible and just hit each other.
• About Bjorn Ironside’s greatest love, Alexander Ludwig says: I think that after Thorunn left he had written off everything and kinda just used his sexual exploits as a way of self-medicating.
• About his first day on set, Jordan Patrick Smith says: I do remember my first day on the set because Travis slapped me in the face 45 times. That was my introduction to Vikings. When I first came to set it was big shoes to fill. I remember walking down the hills and someone said “please don’t mess this up, our jobs depend on you.” So that was what the four brothers were introduced to walking down the hill. But I also remember everyone being so welcoming…
• About the scene where Ragnar learns the Lord’s Prayer, Michael Hirst says: And Travis said to me, “do you think, perhaps it would be a good idea if I don’t say anything in this episode except the Lord’s Prayer?” And I said, “well you are in a lot of scenes” and he said “yeah but I can do it by looking,” I don’t need to say anything. So this was for sure a radical idea and I looked at the script and I was thinking well you know other people can say those words or I can get information somewhere else and it’s a cool idea anyway, we may get away with it.

What do you think? Are you a fan of the Vikings TV series? Are you looking forward to the final episodes?