By Neia Balao
2:03am PDT, Apr 16, 2023
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Who doesn't love a scrappy, sexy and totally heroic Viking?! In the last few decades, pop culture has seen a major increase in Vikings-related content — from handsome actors like Gerard Butler and Alexander Skarsgard playing Norse heroes on the big screen to a Viking-themed group date on "The Bachelorette" — and we're definitely here for it. To celebrate the April 14, 2023, release of Netflix's "The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die" — the movie that concludes the hit Netflix series "The Last Kingdom," we've rounded up our favorite Vikings in popular culture…
The Netflix series "The Last Kingdom" — which is based on the historical novel series "The Saxon Stories" by Bernard Cornwell — takes place in ninth and 10th century England and chronicles the political and personal struggles between the Saxons and Danes during this period. Alexander Dreymon (pictured) stars as the show's hero, a Saxon raised by Danes who straddles both worlds. The man known as Uhtred, son of Uhtred wants nothing more than to regain his lost birth right — Bebbanburg, a Northumbrian coastal fortress. The 2023 Netflix movie "The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die" wraps up the five-season series.
Keep reading to see more great Vikings in pop culture…
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Over seven seasons from 2008 to 2014, Alexander Skarsgard played Eric Northman — a sexy, deadly Viking prince born in Sweden in A.D. 900 who was turned into a vampire who's lived for 1,000 years — on the hit HBO series "True Blood."
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On Netflix's "Vikings: Valhalla" — which is set about 100 years after the events of the hit History channel series "Vikings" — Sam Corlett stars as Leif Erikson. On the show, Leif travels from his home in Greenland to the Viking settlement of Kattegat in southern Norway with sister Freydis and soon puts his intelligence and skill as a warrior to the test. Leif is based on a real person who's believed to be the first European to set foot on North American land. Leif wasn't alone on his harrowing journey…
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On "Vikings: Valhalla," Swedish model-actress Frida Gustavsson stars as Freydís Eiríksdóttir, a vicious, strong-minded Viking warrior who is also Leif Erikson's half-sister.
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"The Bachelor" franchise is certainly known for having some pretty, well, odd group dates, but this is one we couldn't help but love! During a group date on Michelle Young's season of "The Bachelorette" in her hometown of Minneapolis, the men headed to U.S. Bank Stadium — aka the home of the Minnesota Vikings NFL team — and got all dressed up in Viking-age apparel to compete in various Viking-inspired challenges to impress their leading lady. Not a shabby bunch, if you ask us!
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This look was historically accurate, right? In 2015, Paris Hilton attended the Casamigos Tequila Halloween party in a Viking-inspired costume.
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2010's "How to Train Your Dragon" is set in the fictional mythical Viking village of Berk. It follows underestimated teen Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), who dreams of becoming a dragon slayer. But instead of killing a rare Night Fury dragon he encounters, Hiccup chooses to befriend the beast, who he names Toothless — which proves controversial and ultimately unacceptable to the people in his village. The animated fantasy flick, which spawned two more installments, enjoyed critical and commercial acclaim, earning nearly $500 million globally as well as an Oscar nomination for best animated feature.
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Alexander Skarsgard starred as the titular Vikings in the 2022 historical action-thriller film "The Northman, which is based on the legend of Amleth, a Viking prince determined to avenge his father's murder. it's not the first time Alexander played a Viking…
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Hägar the Horrible is the Viking star of the titular comic strip created by cartoonist Dik Browne in 1973 that was later drawn by his son, Chris Browne (pictured).
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New man on the Minnesota Vikings! Lizzo may not be a Viking herself, but she does mention dating a new man who presumably played for the Minnesota Vikings in her iconic track "Truth Hurts." Sure, we all knew the NFL team before, but Lizzo put that team on the radar for those of us who don't have much of an interest in professional football.
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Alright, hear us out. Yes, we acknowledge that Thor himself isn't exactly a Viking… He is, however, the Norse god of thunder who's worshipped by Vikings. We'd say it counts. And who doesn't love Marvel star Chris Hemsworth?!
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Before there was "Vikings: Valhalla" on Netflix, there was "Vikings" on the History channel. The historical-drama series, which ran from 2013 to 2020 for six seasons, chronicled the rise of Ragnar Lothbrok (played by Travis Fimmel, pictured), a lowly farmer-turned-warrior who became the king of his native Scandinavia.
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English actor Clive Standen also starred on "Vikings" as Rollo, Ragnar's warrior brother who grows jealous of living in his shadow.
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In 2005, Gerard Butler portrayed Beowulf in the fantasy-adventure flick "Beowulf & Grendel." Unfortunately, the film failed to impress: It earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 47%. Womp.
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In 1989, the British fantasy-comedy flick "Erik the Viking" debuted. The film stars future Oscar winner Tim Robbins as the titular young Viking with a conscience. Critic Roger Ebert called the movie "an utterly worthless exercise in waste and wretched excess, uninformed by the slightest spark of humor, wit or coherence." Yikes.
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On Oct. 31, 2016, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took to Instagram to show how he, wife Priscilla Chan and daughter Maxima got into the Halloween spirit by dressing up as Vikings from "How to Train Your Dragon."
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1999's "The 13th Warrior" was another Vikings-inspired film that was also loosely — and we mean loosely — based on Beowulf. Case in point? Historical names were tweaked, with Beowulf being spelt as "Buliwyf" and Grendel as "Wendol." Nevertheless, Antonio Banderas starred as Ahmad ibn Fadlan, a 10th-century Muslim traveler who famously penned a detailed account of the Volga Vikings.
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The 1958 historical-fiction film "The Vikings," based on Edison Marshall's 1951 novel, tells the epic story of two Viking half-brothers who duel for the affections of a captive princess. Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis star as the brutally competitive Vikings in this commercially successful movie that spawned the TV series "Tales of the Vikings" in 1959.
