The Last Kingdom – BBC America's answer to Vikings and Game of Thrones – arrives soon. In anticipation, the network has released a clip featuring a scene from the series' first season.
The series takes place in the 9th century and tells the story of a Uhtred, the son of a fictional Saxon nobleman, who lives in a real historical time period — a time when most of England's kingdoms fell to the Vikings, save for one: the kingdom of Wessex, whose leader was King Alfred the Great.
The Last Kingdom is a drama based on the historical fiction book series written by Bernard Cornwell called The Saxon Stories.
"At the heart of it, it is a story of a man and his destiny," said The Last Kingdom co-executive producer Gareth Neame at the TCA press tour, as reported by the L.A. Times. "It's about Uhtred and this amazing journey that he has to go on and his relationship with King Alfred."
The scene released by BBC America shows a young Uhtred (played by Tom Taylor) on a battlefield, where he sees his father get violently killed. Uhtred comes out of hiding and confronts a Danish warlord — and as expected, that meeting doesn't go too well: the clip ends with Uhtred being knocked unconscious. The scene is clearly formative for Uhtred, explaining how he becomes the man he will be on the series.
In The Last Kingdom, the older version of Uhtred is played by American Horror Story's Alexander Dreymon, with his father portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen (Ripper Street). Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) plays a Viking Lord. The series also stars Emily Cox (Circle of Life), Ian Hart (The Bridge), Tobias Santelmann (Kon-Tiki), Thomas W. Gabrielsson (A Royal Affair), Peter Gantzler, Joseph Millson (24: Live Another Day), Alexandre Willaume (Over the Edge), Rune Temte (The Accident) and Henning Valin Jakobsen (The Killing).
Although the comparisons are inescapable, given the material, the series is not as much like HBO's Game of Thrones as viewers might think.
"I'm a huge admirer of Game of Thrones, but it's really a different genre, that is fantasy genre, this is isn't fantasy at all," said Neame. "There's no dragons in this show and many of these characters really existed... What it has in common maybe is the action, the battles and the look of the show."
The first episode of The Last Kingdom airs on BBC America October 10.
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