I went into the Bloodaxe teaser with one question: after Vikings and Vikings: Valhalla, does Michael Hirst have another brutal, bingeable saga in him? The New York Comic Con drop gives me an answer, and Prime Video has finally given it a date. Bloodaxe arrives on January 20, 2027, with all eight episodes of Season 1 dropping at once. A second season is already in production in Ireland.
The series is created, written and executive produced by Michael Hirst and Horatio Hirst, and produced by MGM Television. It stars Xavier Molyneux as Erik Bloodaxe and Jessica Madsen as Gunnhild, the formidable duo fighting for the throne of Norway. Around them, Karlis Arnolds Avots, Rod Hallett, Alina Tomnikov, Sisse Marie, Rune Temte and Jesper Christensen fill out a saga where rivalries, loyalties and betrayals pull in other Scandinavian kings and even an English king.
What the trailer promises
This is a full-throated Viking epic, not a quiet historical drama. The trailer sells scale, ambition and a marriage that feels like the actual engine of the story. Erik and Gunnhild are not a lone wolf and a worried partner; they are in it together, which is a slightly different flavour from Hirst’s earlier sagas. The politics look messy, the battles look costly, and the world feels lived-in from the first frame.
What it holds back
Smartly, the teaser does not give away how Erik becomes the man the history books remember. It withholds the specific betrayals, the shape of the season and the cost of the throne. We get the heat, not the full map. For a show built on alliances shifting underfoot, that restraint is exactly right.
The moment everyone will talk about
For me, it is not the largest clash on screen. It is the shared look between Erik and Gunnhild when the battle over Norway becomes something more personal. That exchange tells you the show is betting on its central relationship, not just its spectacle. If that chemistry holds across eight episodes, Bloodaxe will have something Vikings fans keep coming back for.
Where this sits
Bloodaxe is set in the 10th century, chronologically between Vikings and Vikings: Valhalla. That is a deliberate piece of world-building for fans who know Hirst’s universe. For Prime Video, it is a play for a proven global audience. For Molyneux, it is a genuine leading-man moment. For Hirst, it is a return to the mythology he built.
The honest verdict
I will be there on January 20. Not because Bloodaxe reinvents the wheel, but because it looks like it knows exactly what it is: a ferocious, character-driven power struggle with enough spectacle to feel event-sized. The trailer does its job. It makes me want the first episode now, and for subscribers this looks worth clearing a weekend.
Watch the original: Prime Video on YouTube
Source: Variety
