On January 12, Netflix’s Vikings: Valhalla Season 2 will pick up in the bloody aftermath of the battle of Kattegut. The fate of our heroes, Harald Sigurdsson (played by Leo Suter) and Freydís Eiríksdóttir (played by Frida Gustavsson), but particularly Sam Corlett’s Leif Eriksson, are now up in the air. With new paths set before each of them, Season 2 will explore Harald’s bid for the crown in his half-brother, Olaf Haraldsson’s (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson), absence and Freydís’ journey as "The Last Daughter of Uppsala," while Leif deals with the repercussions of Liv’s (Lujza Richter) death.

Vikings: Valhalla is creator Jeb Stuart’s continuation of Michael Hirst’s Vikings, and is set a century after the original series. Valhalla centers on acclaimed explorer, Leif Eriksson, and chronicles the turmoil, both externally and within, of the clans of warriors that would eventually lead to the end of the Viking Age.

Ahead of the Vikings: Valhalla Season 2 premiere, Collider’s Steve Weintraub spoke with Jeb Stuart about the series. During the interview, the creator explained the difficulties faced in pulling off a stellar season, no matter the first or final, and his approach to telling each story separately. Stuart also mentions upcoming time-jumps, specific characters’ growth, and seeing Kattegut in Seasons 2 and 3 again. For more on Vikings: Valhalla, Stuart’s involvement with Assassin’s Creed, and when to expect Season 3, you can watch the interview in the video above, or read the full transcript down below.

COLLIDER: Earlier this year in January I tried asking you a question, and you deflected. I'm going to start this interview off seeing what I can get. Are you still involved in the Assassin's Creed thing?

JEB STUART: I am no longer involved in the Assassin’s Creed thing.

So was it a difference of your version of what they wanted to do?

STUART: I think it was a little bit of a move of executives from LA to London, and it allowed the London group who, unfortunately, had to inherit my vision of what it was instead of getting to develop their own vision. So I think that's fair. I know it's going to be great whenever it comes out. I think the Ubisoft guys are fantastic. I think it's a terrific franchise. It was just a good, mutual time to move on for both sides.

It's not like you're not busy. So, you've made three seasons of [Vikings: Valhalla]. Which season ended up being the most challenging? Because, I'm curious if it's Season 1 when you're building the infrastructure, or further along when you know what you can do when you're trying to push even further.

STUART: Without a doubt. That's a great question. Without a doubt, Season 1 was hard for exactly the reason you said. I felt like I was out there in the wilderness saying, “We can do this. We can take down London Bridge on TV, and make it look like we just did a $40 million action set piece. We can do this. We can break off from the Michael Hirst tree and stand alone as its own type of show. We can tell a show with a lot more action and suspense, and many more characters, and all of those types of things.” That's hard when you're out there alone sometimes just saying, “It's going to work, it's going to work, it's going to be fun, it's going to be great. Trust me.” I hate the words “trust me.”

We got that behind us. Season 2 becomes a challenge because, okay, you did it in Season 1. What are you going to do for Season 2? It’s almost like doing a sequel. It's almost like it's got to be faithful to everything you did for Season 1, and yet it's got to be new and fresh, and even better for Season 2. So you have to take risks when you do sequels if you want them to be successful. I think we took some great [risks] in Season 2, so that made it harder. Telling everybody, “Trust me, we can break up the band, and it still will work.”

Season 3, it was hard just simply because it's bringing everything back around again, and you're topping Season 2 and Season 1. So anyway, I can't answer that question other than say they're all hard, Steve. I mean, it's all tough.

So you filmed the first two seasons borderline back-to-back. I'm not sure how much of a break there was, but with Season 3 you shot that on its own. Because the first season was such a hit, was there any talk with Netflix about, "Hey, do you want to do three and four together?" Or, “We can only really get ready for Season 3 if you want…?” Did you ever discuss that possibility?

STUART: We really talked about one, two, and three as sort of a block, and then hopefully we could get to a four, five, and six because the story is... I think you'll see when you see Season 2 and Season 3. It's almost like a novel. It has these wonderful time-jumps and growth in terms of particular characters. And like a really big, great novel, it's got several under-stories that are holding things up that you don't really feel. They're like leitmotifs that you don't really see, but you suddenly feel them there.

So, I'm hoping we have the opportunity to complete that journey, but I feel that one, two, and three are all stand-alone’s, all good like that. I'm happy. I'm a happy guy. I'm getting to tell a really cool story with lots of great action and great characters, and a cast that I love working with, and crew. What's there to complain about?

So you're saying that you think if the show gets to continue, the goal would be to try to shoot four, five, and six together?

STUART: If we got a chance to do this – and from your mouth to God's ear, okay? If we've got a chance to shoot this, yes, it's a continuation because the first part was thought of as a triptych. The second part should be thought of, as well. Now, if I only got one season to go, I'll take it one at a time and do whatever I have to do. But, these things are always better when you get to play on a large canvas. It's better.

Hypothetically, if you were to shoot four, five, and six together, does that impact the budget where you save money because you're doing it all together versus doing Season 4, one at a time?

STUART: There's no question that you can amortize, especially for a big action show like ours. If you can amortize across a season, or across a season and a half, which we can and can't do with Valhalla, each season is its own company and that sort of thing. I know we'll be in Kattegut in Season 3, as well as season 2, as well as Season 1.

So, it's not like each year I'm having to build a separate piece, and yet I can build separate pieces to pop in, thinking that I've got a couple more seasons out there. I can think about costumes, I can think about weaponry. Our armory is gigantic, our fleet is gigantic. So what boats will I need for Season 5? I can start thinking about it in Season 4. There's a lot of that that would obviously help just from a financial situation.

I spoke to you earlier this year in January for Season 1, and I'm talking to you now with Season 2 coming out in January. You have filmed Season 3. Is the plan for January 2024 for Season 3? Is the plan for every January to release one?

STUART: We don't have any commitment at this point. We hope we do, but we don't at this point. We are still just starting to do the post-production on Season 3, so we've got a long throw as far as that's concerned. I would love to get a pickup. We'd love to continue this journey. If we're lucky enough to have that happen, we'll be ready whenever we're ready.

Vikings: Valhalla Season 2 begins streaming only on Netflix on January 12. For more on the series, here's our interview with Leo Suter, Frida Gustavsson, & Sam Corlett.