After six seasons, years of rich historical drama and a great deal of ratings success,
what exactly made History decide to axe its flagship show?
These are the real reasons why Vikings is finally coming to an end.
Growing up on his parents' farm in Australia, Travis Fimmel was a million miles away from
the bright lights of Hollywood, but a chance encounter with a modeling scout changed the
course of his life forever.
After a stint working in London, he decided to try his luck Stateside, and according to
the Sydney Morning Herald, was offered a contract instantly after, quote, "swaggering barefoot
into LA Models."
He quickly became the face of Calvin Klein, but while he made money posing in his underwear,
he was also fine-tuning his acting skills.
Fimmel had a number of roles in Australia prior to Vikings, but it was playing the show's
enigmatic lead that brought him international recognition.
His intense and often sympathetic portrayal of farmer-turned-Viking leader Ragnar Lothbrok
was the true heart of the show, so when the character was killed off in season 4, Vikings
entered uncharted territory.
According to Forbes writer Erik Kain, it was a gamble that ultimately didn't pay off.
After the show’s cancellation, he wrote:
"Thank goodness.
The show has been lost at sea for a long time now, and probably should have wrapped with
the death of Ragnar and departure of lead, Travis Fimmel."
When Ragnar met his end in season 4, viewers were supposed to get on board with the idea
of his sons heading to England to avenge his death.
We were introduced to his first-born son, Bjorn, way back in the first season, but we
didn't really get to know the rest of Ragnar's brood until after the season 4 time jump.
Vikings creator Michael Hirst told Variety:
"It was very important to bring on Ragnar's sons.
I've invested a lot of time, hope and expectation in these sons.
It's very important that the audience invest in these new characters."
Unfortunately for Hirst, this never really happened.
Despite his best efforts, audiences just didn't seem as interested in watching the antics
of Ragnar's offspring, even when they were hell-bent on avenging the man himself.
After new of the show’s end broke, Forbes reported:
"Ragnar's story was over a long time ago and none of the stories that have come since have
resonated as much with viewers.”
TV Equals placed the blame directly at the feet of Ragnar's sons.
They wrote:
"The death of Ragnar Lothbrok has left a void that his sons have not yet been able to fill…
most of Ragnar's sons are kind of boring."
History ordered a sixth season of Vikings before season 5 had even begun.
At the time, nobody knew that the sixth season would be the last, but the decision to cancel
the show seems to have been influenced (at least in part) by a decline in viewership.
Following the season 5 premiere, CarterMatt tried to soften the blow by suggesting that
it's "hard for any cable series to amass large numbers these days," but the facts are still
hard to ignore.
The outlet wrote:
"The bad news is that these ratings are down fairly substantially from the 0.8 rating that
the show generated for its season 4 premiere back in February 2016.
It's also down about 9 percent in total viewers.
Versus the average season 4 rating, the Vikings premiere is down about 13 percent in the demo
and 4 percent in the viewers."
This wasn't a new trend, either: the previous season also saw a significant drop.
According to TV Series Finale, season 4 of Vikings was down by a whopping "28 percent
in the demo and 44 percent in viewers."
History renewed anyway, but the network must have recognized that the show was approaching
its end.
One surefire way of getting waning viewers to stick with a show is to announce that the
next season will be the last, and it seems the network wanted to wrap Vikings up before
it saw a mass exodus.
Gustaf Skarsgård's Floki has been a fan favorite since day one, but the character underwent
wholesale changes in season 5.
He sails with Ragnar's sons as part of the Great Heathen Army, but once they avenge him,
Floki becomes little more than a spare part.
"I feel trapped in all this happiness.
I feel trapped, Helga."
He then takes to the seas alone and puts himself at the mercy of the Gods, who lead him to
what he believes to be Asgard, but we know today as Iceland.
Floki decides to bring a handful of settlers to this new, wild land, hoping to build a
community free of the violence that had become an everyday part of Viking life.
Despite Floki's attempts at keeping the peace, petty arguments turn into blood feuds and
the settlement struggles.
It ought to have run across a few episodes at best, but the Iceland plot was still ongoing
at the end of season 5, testing the patience of many viewers.
One ticked off Redditor wrote:
"I can't believe I gave Hirst the benefit of the doubt with this storyline.
The drama between Eyvind and Floki has been forced from the start, and they've made absolutely
no effort to get us to care about any of the new characters."
Floki's voyage to Iceland may have been inspired by true events, but sadly it made for some
pretty boring television.
When Travis Fimmel departed Vikings, Katheryn Winnick became the new anchor of the show.
Ragnar's first wife Lagertha has always been loved by fans, so this seemed a smart move.
But while Winnick made a name for herself playing Lagertha, like Fimmel, it was only
a matter of time before she too moved on to bigger things.
Vikings may have sailed a little off course in season 5, but Winnick remains in demand.
The Dark Tower was a letdown for her and Polar didn't exactly go to plan, but Winnick is
set to return to TV with a brand new Netflix show in 2019, Wu Assassins, a martial arts
crime series set in San Francisco's Chinatown.
Winnick's in-show son Alexander Ludwig is also a hot property thanks to his portrayal
of Bjorn Ironside.
Ludwig had previously appeared in the Hunger Games franchise, but Vikings catapulted him
to new levels of fame.
He told Channel 24:
"I'd never experienced anything like that.
It's amazing how much this show has really affected people in all walks of life globally."
It’s not a stretch to imagine that Ludwig must be in as much demand as Winnick and Fimmel.
When the first episode of The Last Kingdom aired in 2015, some had already dismissed
it as a Vikings knockoff.
By the time the first season was done, however, many minds had been changed.
In its review for the show, The AV Club wrote:
"BBC America's sprawling, arresting eight-part historical miniseries The Last Kingdom proves
that there's room enough on television for more than one Viking invasion.”
The show (which is based on the Saxon Stories novels by Bernard Cornwell) was praised by
critics across the board, creating an instant rivalry with Vikings.
Of course, Vikings and The Last Kingdom aren't the only two shows set during that tumultuous
period in European history.
When Erik Kain expressed relief over Vikings ending in his Forbes piece, he pointed out
that the market was becoming highly saturated.
Kain wrote:
"We have The Last Kingdom airing still on Netflix after all.
Oh, and there's also the wonderful Norsemen.
Viking shows are becoming like zombie shows."
Norsemen is a comedy show, so it wasn’t ever really a direct threat to Vikings, but
its success further proves that History isn't the only network capable of creating a compelling
show about the Viking way of life.
The Viking trend has also hit the big screen with Northmen: A Viking Saga arriving hot
on the heels of Vikings in 2014, and Norse culture remains prevalent in Hollywood today
thanks to the How to Train Your Dragon franchise.
Viewers have lots of different places to go should they want a Viking fix, and Vikings
itself has suffered for that fact.
Despite everything, many Vikings fans still believe the show is being sent to Valhalla
far too soon.
Disgruntled viewers took to Twitter to vent when the news broke, comedian Kathleen Madigan
among them.
She tweeted:
"Vikings [is] being canceled after season 6.
I'll just go ahead and prepare my own viking funeral in solidarity.
Sad news."
And while some fans might point out that the show has already covered everything historians
know about Ragnar and his sons, that doesn't necessarily mean Vikings has to end.
Hirst’s other show The Tudors was notorious for being historically inaccurate, but even
leading historians admitted that the things Hirst added worked well for TV.
Dr. Tracy Borman told The Telegraph:
"Yes, the scriptwriters may have taken liberties with the facts, but they have also succeeded
in re-creating the drama and atmosphere of Henry VIII's court."
Vikings star Alexander Ludwig has praised Hirst's willingness to take a "creative liberty"
with the show, which he could well have continued to do for many more seasons.
The decline in ratings was undoubtedly on the mind of History executives when they agreed
to bring Vikings to an end, but Michael Hirst didn't mention any of that when he sat down
with Variety in January 2019.
Officially, the interview was about the season 5 finale, but the show's cancellation inevitably
came up.
Pressed for details, Hirst claimed that six seasons was actually enough time for him to
tell the story he'd wanted to tell from the very beginning.
He said:
"What I was trying to do was write the saga of Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons.
After six seasons and 89 episodes, that's what I felt, finally, I'd done…
I had no reason to want to continue it beyond that."
"Don’t waste your time looking back.
You’re not going that way."
Hirst was quick to remind Variety readers that the funeral pyre hadn't been lit just
yet.
In an effort to lift spirits among the wounded fans, the showrunner started hyping up the
sixth and final season.
He told the publication:
"We visit three new worlds in those episodes, we go through great tragedies and great heroism,
and if you have tears to weep be prepared to weep them as you watch season 6.
I'm very proud of the show.
I did what I wanted to do, that's the truth."
Losing Vikings is a huge blow for the show's many dedicated fans, but it was softened by
news that a spinoff series is in the cards.
When Variety asked Hirst what he had planned for this new show, the writer and producer
said that he considers it a "continuation series."
"We were defeated!"
"We live to fight another day."
Hirst went on to explain that he had developed an attachment to the characters he brought
to life in Vikings, which is why he wanted to be involved in any new show set in that
world.
Hirst said:
"I have to say that they're not characters to me.
I write so much about them, I've lived with them for seven years.
They're real people to me.
So I care, and have been caring, about them for a long time.
I want to guide them through whatever storylines they have."
So does this mean we'll see more of our favorite Vikings characters pop up in this continuation
series?
And what does 'continuation series' even mean?
Hirst explained:
"Continuation means that if we make it, it will be connected to my saga.
It may not involve necessarily the same characters.
I can't go into more details than that, but for the fans of the show it will be a continued
enjoyment of the Vikings experience."
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite shows are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.