Actor Goran Visnjic has joined Season 3 of Netflix’s Vikings: Valhalla, Deadline has reported. In a multi-year arc, he will play Erik the Red, the legendary Viking father of Leif Eriksson played by Sam Corlett and Freydis Eiríksdóttir played by Frida Gustavsson.
The series was created by Jeb Stuart for Netflix as a sequel to Michael Hirst’s Vikings which ran for six seasons between 2013 and 2020. The series debuted this year in February and quickly rose to Netflix’s Top 10 viewership rankings only to get an instant two-season renewal.
Set in the 11th century the series chronicles the adventures of some of the most famous Vikings who ever lived – Harald Hardrada (Leo Suter), Leif Eriksson (Corlett), Freydis Eriksdotter (Gustavsson), and the Norman King William the Conqueror. Stuart told Digital spy earlier this year, “Season three is very exciting, and my Vikings get out of Scandinavia, so we have lots of great surprises and stories for season three.”
Season 1 sets a perfect stage for the upcoming seasons as the tensions between the Vikings and the English royals reach a bloody breaking point but even before the completion of the season, Stuart had an idea of where the story goes. He reveals,
My story carries on past [a third season] and I would love more time to tell the full story, I would love more time to get to the fact that William the Conqueror puts an end to the Viking Age. That story involves Harald Sigurdsson and that story involves a lot of our characters like Emma and Godwin, so I am hoping that audiences love Valhalla and this cast, who are a brilliant cast, and we get the chance to tell the whole story.
Along with Suter, Corlett, and Gustavsson Vikings: Valhalla's cast includes Bradley Freegard, Laura Berlin, David Oakes, Jóhannes Jóhannesson, and Caroline Henderson. The series is produced by MGM Television while Hirst and Stuart also executive produce. Morgan O’Sullivan, James Flynn, Sherry Marsh, Alan Gasmer, Sheila Hockin, and John Weber all serve as executive producers.
There is no release date set for a Season 2 or 3, meanwhile here’s the synopsis of Vikings: Valhalla Season 1:
Plotting to avenge a massacre in England, Viking armies converge in Kattegat - but siblings Leif and Freydis exact a different kind of retribution. To save the life of Freydis, Leif agrees to join Canute and Harald's siege of London, Queen Emma dispatches stepson Edmund to secure an ally's help.