Bloodaxe is Prime Video’s forthcoming historical action drama from Vikings creator Michael Hirst and his son, Horatio Hirst. The eight-part series premieres on 20 January 2027, giving Australian viewers a new power struggle to follow over summer.
The story centres on Eric Haraldsson, better known as Eric Bloodaxe, a real 10th-century Viking warrior. When the series begins, Eric is already influential and widely respected, but the kingdom his father spent a lifetime building is starting to fracture.
A royal succession becomes a battle for survival
Eric expects King Harald to name him as successor. Instead, Harald selects his younger son Haakon, who spent his early years in England learning diplomacy. The decision places the brothers on opposite sides of a growing contest for Norway’s throne.
Eric’s wife, Gunnhild, has her own plans for securing power. At the same time, her exiled brother Egil works from nearby Iceland on a rival path to the crown. The opening episode therefore introduces several competing factions, each with a personal reason to challenge the established order.
The first episode moves quickly, combining palace intrigue with violent reversals, elaborate production design, dramatic scenery, sex and sudden deaths. Its central conflict is familiar: a weak ruler, an unstable kingdom and ambitious figures willing to risk civil war to seize control.
Norwegian drama with Icelandic scale
Although much of the material intended to represent Norway was filmed in Ireland, digital effects add rugged Scandinavian mountains. Egil’s scenes were filmed in Iceland, including locations featuring geothermal pools and glaciers that give the series a particularly imposing visual identity.
The production also uses life-sized boats and large, expansive sets. Xavier Molyneux plays Eric and previously appeared as a contestant on Australian Big Brother. His co-stars include Jesper Christensen as King Harald, Levi Miller as Haakon, Jessica Madsen of Bridgerton as Gunnhild and Kārlis Arnolds Avots as Egil.
Behind the royal manoeuvring is a harsher world governed by values that can feel unfamiliar to modern audiences. Norse paganism and its many gods face the expanding influence of Catholic monotheism, while prophecies and ritual practices add a supernatural edge to the political drama.
The series also presents Viking society as comparatively egalitarian for its period, with men and women treated more equally than might be expected from a medieval setting. That detail gives the conflict a broader social dimension beyond the question of who will wear the crown.
A historical story with its ending already written
Bloodaxe draws on the historical record as preserved by Icelandic clerics and scholars centuries after Eric’s lifetime. Viewers who want to know the eventual fate of Eric and the other major figures can investigate the history in advance, although the series is designed to let the political journey unfold on screen.
All eight episodes arrive on Prime Video on 20 January 2027, and a second season is already in production. The completed historical record also gives the drama a fixed destination: the broad shape of the ending has existed for more than a thousand years.
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Bloodaxe premieres on 20 January 2027 on Prime Video.
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