A loud and excited crowd gathered in the early hours of WonderCon to listen to the cast of History's Vikings dish the goods on the new hit series. As the cast took the stage, they were met with thunderous applause from the pack room. Audience members also took to calling out the names of the shows characters as each actor was introduced.
"We knew the subject matter; it was the right subject matter for us," Dirk Hoogstran said of the cable channel's decision to tackle Vikings as its first scripted show. Apparently, every time the channel would air a special or documentary on Vikings, there would be a significant ratings spike. This made the decision to greenlight the series an easy one. Hoogstra also told the audience that selecting the cast was an easy process, since most of the actors seemed to be natural fits for their respective roles.
"The scripts were so good and I'm a kid at heart and I wanted to run around with an axe and not get a haircut," Travis Fimmel said. The cast stressed the great characters really drew and writing made joining the show an easy sell. Fimmel made sure to point out that his fellow cast members made the job easy, since they had quickly become friends and family.
For the show, The History Channel paid extra close attention to historical details. Two replica Viking ship were built, one of which is actually sea worthy. The cast rowed and manned the ship themselves in order to maintain a true to the era feel. "It really put in you in the time and place," Fimmel said of the experience.
The costume designers tried to make the cast as comfortable as possible, but historical accuracies always took precedent over the comfort level of the actors. "They did a fantastic job, it felt authentic. You felt that this is what you would have worn," Katheryn Winnick said.
The discussion then moved to the future of Vikings and what fans can expect as the series progressed.
"You can feel a lot of tension. My character, nothing is ever enough, so he's gonna keep raiding for sure. He gets in some bad environments and maybe bits off more than he can chew," Fimmel said, teasing about upcoming episodes. The cast did the usual song and dance when asked about where the season was going, carefully avoiding spoilers or details of any sort.
"What I will say, is that it's such a gift to be given such a character. It's a massive arc, to be able to play a character that goes through so many changes is just a really good time," George Blayden said.
"What I can say right now is that we are thrilled with the performance of the show right now," Dirk Hoogstra said when asked if there more seasons of the show in the works. The cast laughed and pointed out that Hoogstra had not answered the question at all. "It's called an artful PR dodge," he laughed.
While no one on the panel could confirm that Vikings would be renewed for more seasons, Hoogstra was quick to point out, "This is my favorite show. I'm over lots of projects at History, and this is my favorite one."
"Look at him, he's nodding!" Fimmel laughed, which lead to loud cheers and applause from the audience. The cast then urged the crowd to watch the show and to tell their friends and family about the show. "We wanna do more," Fimmel said.
The crowd was then shown a teaser episode 5, which featured tons of bloody, violent action which was again met with a huge response.
Benjamin is a writer and storyteller. He owns many leather-bound books and his office smells of rich mahogany. He also thinks the dudes from Vikings are pretty good looking dudes. Follow Benjamin on Twitter @616Earth, or find him on IGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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