A new age of Vikings: Meet the stars leading the franchise to Valhalla with Netflix spin-off

Leo Suter knew things were about to get gnarly on the set of Vikings: Valhalla when the cameraman fastened a motorcycle helmet to his head.

An early episode of the spin-off series, set in the same world as History Channel's six-season Vikings saga, sees Suter's Nordic prince Harald Sigurdsson enter full berserk mode — slathered in blood, a weapon in each hand — as he and his forces ransack an English settlement. In the event of a stray axe swing or one wrong thrust of a sword, at least the guy holding the camera could keep rolling. "I was like, 'Things are about to get real,'" Suter says. "That was the first time I'd ever seen it from a cameraman."

To the stars headlining Valhalla, it felt like a new age for Vikings, a show that originally aired from 2013 to 2020 and portrayed the rise of Ragnar Lothbrok and his kin. Valhalla, coming to Netflix this Friday, takes place 100 years later to tell the beginning of the end of the Vikings, when Greenlanders set foot on the shores of England amid religious strife between the pagan Vikings and their Christian brethren. The original's series creator Michael Hirst executive produces the spin-off, but it's Jeb Stuart, screenwriter behind Die Hard and The Fugitive, at the helm. And his big-screen action sensibilities came through to the cast.

"You get thrown into the story a lot quicker," says Frida Gustavsson, playing Freydis Eriksdotter. "You get straight to the nitty gritty. The scale of how we do things is just mind-blowing."

Along with Sam Corlett, the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina veteran who now plays historic Norse explorer Leif Eriksson, Suter and Gustavsson unpack all the changes coming to Vikings and the three core characters leading the next chapter for the television franchise.

The explorer

Corlett sports a splint on his right hand when he calls in over Zoom from Australia. He and his mates had been riding electric bikes along the beach when, he admits, he "just got too cocky." He had also gone skydiving prior to the spill, but he walked away from that extreme pastime without injury.

"I like to test my nerve," Corlett says. "I find I can be quite relaxed in general, so to push myself to do something that's a bit on the fear side of things is always nice."

The character of Leif aligned with that ethos. As soon as he landed the audition for Vikings: Valhalla, Corlett felt the role would demand every part of himself, both emotionally and physically.

Before becoming a famed explorer, Leif, an accomplished sailor, ferries his kin — including sister Freydis — from Greenland to Kattegat at a time when Vikings, Christians, and pagans alike assembled an army to take over England after King Aethelred II ordered the butchering of all Danes on his lands. Leif's own mission, once fulfilled, finds him marching alongside his people to war.

As the son of Erik the Red, one of the most notoriously violent Vikings in history, Leif isn't exactly welcomed to this new land — which was what sparked Corlett's approach to the character. "I was just thinking about what it would be like to be the son of that energy who possibly suffered from PTSD," the actor explains. "A lot of Leif's underlying purpose was to not be suffocated by his dad's name wherever he goes."

Corlett welcomed the collaboration with Stuart in crafting this role. The showrunner had Westerns in mind for Leif, specifically 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, as a reference for Leif's relationship with Harald, a man with his eye on the throne of Norway. Corlett became entrenched in the subtle nuances of his character, from contributing designs for his tattoos to mapping out the gestures Leif uses to grab weapons in combat.

It should also come as no surprise that Corlett was prepared to handle the action required of Leif. He may have taken a couple hits, too, here and there.

"I gave someone a black eye. I got a black eye from the same person," he says. "No one really complained on set. Everyone's there to tell the story."

The shield maiden

Freydis' scar is more physical. She's never seen it, but she knows it's there: the shape of a cross carved into her back with a blade. And she's hunting the man who gave it to her.

Part of Gustavsson's collaboration with Stuart involved fleshing out the character's experience as a sexual assault survivor. More specifically, what her life's purpose will be once she finds justice.

"She's there to get revenge and she does not care if she dies," Gustavsson says. "She wanted her warriors way out and to go to Valhalla proud. It was really interesting because she starts off so strong and then she kind of stumbles a little bit in finding her roots. I really enjoyed that part 'cause it was the opening to Freydis' spiritual awakening."

Gustavsson calls Freydis a dream a role. "She's very physical. She's very demanding of her space," the actress adds. "As a young woman, it was good for me to relate to somebody who just comes in the room and is like, boom, I deserve to be here."

It's a trait that plays into her relationship with brother Leif and lover Harald. Both she and Corlett are close to their siblings outside of the show, and Gustavsson felt an instant kinship with her new costar after screen testing together for the show in Ireland. "I feel like we create a sacred space where we can just really lean on each other," she says.

As for Harald, one of the last berserkers who's born into Nordic nobility, he is instantly smitten by Freydis as soon as she disembarks her boat from Greenland. Gustavsson's first scene with Suter for the entire production was Freydis' love scene with Harald. "No pressure," she jokes. But she ended up finding a true friend in Suter.

"There's a really interesting power dynamic between them, which is a lot of fun to play," Gustavsson notes. "We're always side-eyeing each other a little bit."

Freydis, a believer in the old pagan ways, only becomes more forceful when she trains to be a shield maiden at Kattegat — something Gustavsson was determined to perform herself. She began working with the stunt team on knives, and then she graduated to swords, spears, and shields. By the end of the training, there was only one sequence she couldn't do herself for safety reasons.

"It was an intense journey, but I feel now if anybody attacks me on the street, I'll survive that," she says.

The prince

Suter never grew a beard for a role before, but he felt Harald, a Christian Viking and a berserker warrior in Vikings: Valhalla, demanded a transformation.

"I wanted to turn up with as much hair as possible and then let the great artists who lead the hair and make-up departments work their magic," the actor says with a laugh. "I wanted to give some raw material."

As for his body, well, all his shirtless scenes in Valhalla bear the fruits of his labors. Training during a pandemic wasn't easy, but the actor had an image of Harald from the historical records of a "huge, impressive, strong warrior, stronger than anyone else, taller than anyone else." So, he had to improvise a bit to build muscle.

"It was lockdown. There were no gyms open," he recalls. "I fortunately had a few dusty weights that had been sitting in a garage. It was a collection of home items that we improvised to try to replicate a gym. I lifted rocks. [Gave] piggybacks to my sisters and brothers. That was useful."

The lockdowns prompted by COVID-19 that delayed production on the series in 2020 also gave the stars more time to dig into their characters. For Suter, it became about reading up on the historical setting and the real figures the characters were based on. Many Zooms with Stuart and his cast mates ensued.

A helpful element that emerged from this research was realizing the yin and yang that pulls inside Harald. The character's calmness compliments his hot head, according to Suter. "He's going around, he's killing, he's ruthless, but in his core he believes in good."

Suter's thankful he used his time wisely because once production kicked off, he was hitting the ground running, sometimes with 14-hour days. "You spend weeks honing this choreography, you get to set, you get to do your battle sequence, and then the next day you are in the stunt again, learning the next fight that is coming up in the following episode," he says. "There is a relentlessness to it, which is actually really thrilling."

Suter is aware of the fandom that emerged around the original Vikings and is humbled by it as the spin-off heads towards its premiere. There's a nostalgic feel to the show from the jump, he says, but it's not something that requires binging all six seasons of the original show. "We'll pay homage to the heroes before us," he promises, "but this is our own thing."

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