A weak king rules over a cobbled-together kingdom that’s already coming apart at the seams. Various heroes and villains compete and scheme to claim the throne. A new challenger rises up from across the sea, full of vengeance and bloodlust.
If that sounds like the premise of Game of Thrones, well, that’s because it is. But it’s also the set-up for Prime Video’s thrilling new action drama from one of the 21st-century’s most successful showrunners.
During New York Comic Con 2026, I attended an early screening of Bloodaxe, a new series from Vikings creator Michael Hirst and his son Horatio. Based on the show’s first episode, which premieres in January 2027 on Prime Video, the streamer might just have a new Game of Thrones-level hit on its hands. Or at the very least, an entertaining new show for VIkings fans.
Meet Eric Bloodaxe
Bloodaxe tells the real-life story of Eric Haraldsson (aka Eric Bloodaxe), who lived during the 10th century. When we first meet Eric (Xavier Molyneux), he’s already a powerful warrior and a popular figure in Viking society. His father, King Harald (Jesper Christensen), is beginning to lose his grip on the Norwegian kingdom he spent his life uniting. Eric expects to be named successor, but then Harald reveals that his younger son Haakon (Levi Miller), who spent his childhood in England learning the art of diplomacy, will be king instead. Meanwhile, Eric’s statuesque wife Gunnhild (Bridgerton‘s Jessica Madsen) has her own schemes in mind to elevate her husband to the throne, while her exiled brother Egil (Kārlis Arnolds Avots) plots his own ascension to power from nearby Iceland.
That might sound like a lot of plot to pack into one hour of television, and… it is. But Michael and Horatio Hirst deftly plunge us into this world headfirst like a Viking warrior sprinting into the frigid Norwegian Sea. Like Game of Thrones, Bloodaxe pulls out all the stops in its opening act to win over its audience. That means plenty of political intrigue, shocking deaths, stunning scenery, meticulous production design, beautiful actors, and gratuitous sex scenes.
The landscapes are particularly stunning. While much of what’s meant to be Norway was filmed in Ireland, with rugged Scandinavian mountains added in digitally, Egil’s scenes were shot on location in Iceland — you just can’t fake those scorchingly beautiful geothermal pools and glaciers. The cast ain’t bad to look at either. Molyneux resembles a lost Hemsworth brother (his breakout role was as a contestant on Australian Big Brother), while Miller bears a striking resemblance to Kit Harington’s Jon Snow. Life-sized boats and massive sprawling sets complete the experience. It all makes Bloodaxe very easy on the eyes.
That helps when the plot quickly gets down into the muck. While Bloodaxe technically hinges on palace intrigue, this is a gritty and grimy world with its own morals and ethics that feel alien by 21st-century standards. The core story of multiple factions vying for power and bracing for all-out civil war also feels particularly Game of Thrones-esque. There’s even a few prophecies and witchy rituals thrown in for good measure, all playing out against the backdrop of a larger theological battle between Viking paganism with its pantheon of Norse gods and the rising tide of Catholic monotheism. (An interesting wrinkle: Of the two, the Vikings were arguably more progressive for their time, with an egalitarian society that treated men and women equally.)
Your next epic binge
Perhaps most interesting of all, Bloodaxe is based on a true story. The writers are pulling directly from history (as recorded by Icelandic clerics and scholars several hundred years later). This also means that, like with Game of Thrones, if you’re curious about what ultimately happens to Eric and the rest of the gang, you can always read ahead and find out. But why ruin the fun?
All eight episodes of Bloodaxe will make landfall on Jan. 20, 2027, with season 2 already in production. So while you could head to Wikipedia right now to find out whether Eric Bloodaxe becomes king or not, you may have a lot more fun watching his journey play out onscreen.
And assuming the showrunners get to tell a complete story, Bloodaxe has one big advantage over Game of Thrones. This story has been set in stone for over one thousand years, which means it will be very hard for Michael and Horatio Hirst to bungle the ending.
Bloodaxe premieres January 20, 2027 on Prime Video.