Vikings: Valhalla released a hilarious blooper reel from the historical drama's first season.
The behind-the-scenes outtakes were released to coincide with Netflix Geeked Week 2022. The footage kicks off with an introduction by cast members Sam Corlett (Leif Erikson), Frida Gustavsson (Freydís Eiríksdóttir) and Leo Suter (Harald Sigurdsson) in which they thank fans for making the show a Top 10 series in 91 countries. The trio then hype Seasons 2 and 3, sharing faux-spoilers for upcoming episodes, joking that won't include any fights or romance and will focus on establishing peace between the Pagans and the Christians. From here, the blooper reel itself begins, offering up a side-splitting montage of botched performances, including one notable failed attempt to mount a horse.
While this material never made it into Season 1 itself, Vikings: Valhalla creator Jeb Stuart previously explained that humor was important to the series, despite its dark tone and gritty sensibility. "[Y]ou have to have one of those kinds of lines or something to let the steam up, but it's character-based humor," he said. "It's character-based action. So when we were casting, it was really important that I found actors who could bring out that part of [the character's] humanity." Stuart likened this approach to his work as one of the screenwriters of Die Hard, an action blockbuster noted for its sense of humor.
Aside from Stuart's efforts to inject a little levity into proceedings, Gustavsson and her co-star Caroline Henderson have also gone on the record about their attempt to bring femininity in Vikings: Valhalla. "What I love about this [show] is Jeb Stuart, our showrunner, has created these very complex women who are allowed to be faulty, who are allowed to be human the same way men are always allowed to be human," Gustavsson said. Henderson added that modern research suggests that the Netflix series' portrayal of strong Scandinavian women is likely to be historically accurate, too.
Similarly, Suter and Corlett have spoken about bringing depth to the dynamic between their own complex Vikings: Valhalla characters. "I think that there's a beautiful yin-yang nature to our characters in which Leif's steadiness helps Harald and Harald's ambition awakens something in Leif," Corlett said, while Suter pointed to Leif and Harald's first meeting as one of his favorite moments in the series.
All eight episodes of Vikings: Valhalla Season 1 are currently streaming on Netflix. Seasons 2 and 3 do yet have a release date.
Source: Netflix