25 Things You Missed In Vikings

have you ever wondered why there's so much eyeliner used in vikings well firstly it's because it's historically accurate but it was also used to intimidate the enemy and was used to protect their eyes from the sun making it easier to defeat their enemies in battle vikings which was originally called the raid nearly didn't make it to the small screen as producers believed that a show focusing on scandinavian warriors wouldn't be a hit with audiences of course thankfully it was made and the show became an immediate hit one of the reasons why it was so successful is certainly down to the things that happened behind the scenes in this video we are going to take a look at these behind the scenes details such as how the siege of paris was brilliantly brought to life as well as hidden cameos from major league stars and a moment from one of the show's stars that nearly caused a fatal accident so let's roll the clock back to the age of the vikings shall we one of the best things about the show is watching the vikings go toe-to-toe with one another in amazing action scenes but what is really interesting about these scenes is that some of the sequences are performed with real viking style weapons the sequences are obviously meticulously choreographed to prevent injury but overall the action is all too real they are so well choreographed in fact that onset injuries are extremely rare as the stunt team work closely with the actors to make sure that they are using those things properly and not poking their eyes out in fact choreography was so extensive that actors often took up to three weeks to practice a scene now going back to season four there is a moment that the northmen show their true strength when ragnar and his crew haul a viking longship up a cliff what makes this more impressive is the fact that there was no visual effects involved the cast was actually pulling the ship up by themselves which was unsurprisingly no easy feat but the practical effects in season 3 were arguably even more impressive during the paris siege 500 extras were brought onto set which feels alien during covid times with 12 stuntmen actually being set on fire luckily for them they weren't just randomly set on fire but the show had to use an incredible 150 gallons of fire gel to keep them protected to replicate paris the set was physically constructed taking over a space of 13 800 square feet but this wasn't just inside some set in hollywood as 70 of the show is filmed on location outdoors in ireland and canada back to the subject of making things by hand though each piece of armor was hand built by the costume design team with some of the costumes even being molded to their respective actors before being dried but of course not everything can be real on the show namely the blood apparently to shoot one action scene the special effects team would have to make up to 51 liter barrels of the fake blood the show's special effects expert tom mcinerney stated that they even came up with a new type of blood made out of sugar syrup and food coloring specifically designed to wash out of the clothes and of course the decapitated heads weren't real because again people need them meaning that the props team would have to make several plaster heads at a time for each battle sequence often this was without much notice meaning that they would have to quickly make 50 plaster heads at the drop of a hat one of the most harrowing scenes comes when the show's original protagonist ragnar lothbrok meets his untimely end which involved a number of venomous snakes and a very deep pit but in accordance with making things as authentic as possible the snakes used in the scene were not visual effects or props but were actually the real deal so ragnar actor travis fimmel is indeed living most people's nightmare by being covered with dozens of snakes but as you might have guessed snakes have a tendency to bite and this meant that the actor was actually being bitten for real by the serpents of course they weren't actually venomous but no doubt they caused fimmel a great deal of pain but the actor in true viking fashion took it all in stride one of the greatest moments of season 5 was the climactic battle which took place in moments of vision the battle is memorable for firstly its non-linear narrative which flits back and forth in time this was all a little confusing for one of the show's executives who kept on printing out the script believing his printer was malfunctioning secondly originally in the episode vitzerk was meant to die on the battlefield but this was changed in the finished script the battle itself was filmed on three locations and took a long time to shoot sniffery's sequence in the woods which was a one-take shot on a steadicam took by itself one day to film making it one of the trickier parts of the show to shoot in season five alicia agneson who plays freitas was advised not to do a strangling scene involving her character and evar for real she opted against the advice to make it look as real as possible and had to be taken care of by a paramedic and her on-screen co-star like crows and sons of anarchy ravens have a running importance throughout the course of vikings and we see them prominently throughout this is down to the fact that ravens had great importance on a cultural and religious level in norse society with the all father odin having two ravens hugin and moonen serving as his agents because of raven's importance and their link to odin many vikings would have ravens emblazoned on their banners ragnar and his men can often be seen with these raven banners suggesting that the power of odin is with them also ragnar has a raven tattoo on his head to symbolize odin being with him and a raven is added to ragnar every time something major happens to him for example becoming earl speaking of tattoos tom mcinerney apparently did extensive research when coming up with the tattoo designs creating tats that would have real meaning and purpose to the vikings he took inspiration from traditional norse artifacts and inscriptions rollo's tattoos depict a scene containing the children of finr the giant wolf that thor ragnarok fans will certainly know as well as hattie and skull in the scene the wolves chased both the sun and the moon tattoos were reportedly a big part of viking culture and a practice not just made up for the purpose of the show eagle-eyed viewers may have spotted wwe star adam copeland aka edge and third baseman josh donaldson up here on the show but there are a few more hidden cameos as well namely showrunner michael hurst's daughters both appeared in the series with georgia hearst playing the shield maiden tourvy while his other daughter maud hearst plays floki's beloved helga but let's face it the best cameo has to be edge one of the most interesting easter eggs comes at one of the saddest points in the series when the show's matriarch lagertha dies after being accidentally stabbed to death by a hallucinating vitzerk lagatha then falls in the water landing next to the body of her former husband ragnar saying the line in my dreams we are always together there is more depth this line than initially meets the eye though as it is actually a callback to actress katherine winik's audition who recited the lines as she tried out for the role of lagertha see everything comes back around full circle not only is catherine a certified badass on screen but she is one off it as well winik holds a third degree black belt in taekwondo and a second degree black belt in karate and even founded her own martial arts school not only that but she is a licensed bodyguard and has a kinesiology degree the show loved her so much that even after the character's death she was invited back to direct and to help produce the show but winik isn't the only actor to have a very different life before the show before his acting days travis himmel was a well-known underwear model becoming the first male model to be offered a six-figure deal with calvin klein it is also said that he was the cause of a few accidents as his image would distract minnie a driver as we are talking about fimmel one of his very best performances comes in the episode the lord's prayer which strangely comes down to his lack of words in the episode in fact the only thing the character says in the episode is actually the lord's prayer which he recites with athelstan what makes this more remarkable is that it was actually fimmel's suggestion usually actors fight over getting more dialogue in an episode but female asked hearst whether the prayer could be his only lines in the episode hurst was apparently surprised but liked the notion and ended up changing the script but he wanted to keep it a secret so the producers at history wouldn't prevent it from happening as they would be against the star of the show barely saying a word hearst took a lot of liberties when writing the show and would often incorporate his own passions into it for example paying tribute to the poet t.s eliot throughout king ekbert recites a few lines from elliot's poem the burnt notion while helga makes a familiar remark to floki when she says the line after such knowledge what forgiveness this as you guessed it is a line from elliott's poem jarantian who knew vikings were such big fans of major 20th century poets they really must have seen into the future huh but hearst also makes references to another one of his great loves the beatles now to tell you the truth we are not 100 sure what all of these references and easter eggs are as hearst admits he has snuck them in and they are very much for himself but he did allude to at least one of them her states that aslog and ragnar's relationship is based on the relationship between john lennon the band's frontman and yoko ono and how their relationship started to strain over time in regards to the other easter eggs i guess we have another reason to re-watch the show and look out for all these nifty beatles references now who doesn't love breaking bad i mean how can you not of course as you are watching this video i'm assuming you love vikings as well but what if i told you there was a link between the two vikings title theme song if i had a heart by fever ray actually appears in breaking bad season 4 episode 3 and proves even further that vince gilligan and company had a great ear for music cause that song knocks the character of sigi played by jessalyn gilsig was probably one of the most polarizing characters in the show siggy schemed and plotted her way through the show after falling from the position as the earl's wife to a servant however her scheming comes to an untimely end after she falls through the ice into a frozen lake but she wasn't supposed to die and in fact hurst had some big plans for the character but gilsig actually made a request to leave the show as she had personal matters to attend to and had to be close to her family hearst was apparently very helpful and although sad that gilsig would be leaving made sure to close up the character's arc rather than having her recast now while we can't imagine anyone other than alex hoe anderson playing evar the boneless he very nearly came close to not getting the role and even auditioned for other parts thankfully though hurst saw his potential and gave him the role but this isn't the only important piece of information in regard to evar in the show ivar suffers from a bone disease and therefore is given the boneless moniker but no one knows how the real evar was given the title both the real evar and the shojivar are known for their aggression and wrath but by hearst adding this dynamic to the show it gave evar's anger an all-too-human origin while writing for the character hearst spoke to many people with brittle bone disease to learn how they live their lives in such pain and how this causes understandable anger and frustration and this explains where evar's fury comes from although anderson needn't be too angry as all of his costumes are built with comfort in mind so he doesn't hurt himself while crawling around on the hard round gustav skarsgard who plays floki is a talented actor but it turns out he isn't the only one in the family as it happens gustav's brothers are pennywise and tarzan actors bill and alexander skarsgard respectively as well as being the son of legendary actor stalin skarsgard so yeah quite the talent in that family bonus fun fact travis fimmel was also tarzan at the beginning of his career in fact it was his breakout role on the very short-lived modern day tarzan tv series look at that sweet sweet bonus knowledge the show isn't intended to be historically accurate in terms of story but in terms of costume design set builds and action sequences they try to be pretty close to the real deal the same can also be said about the soundtrack with them composing the music without the use of electronic equipment or modern instruments of any kind instead many traditional norse instruments are used such as the bukahorn taglharpa and leer while the characters predominantly speak in english with a scandinavian accent there were actually four other languages used in the show old norse anglo-saxon latin and old frankish all appear in the show although they are all now extinct they were added though to give us a somewhat realistic look at how the people would have spoken at the time like ravens one thing referenced throughout the show is the medieval text the eglise saga the english saga is the account of the 10th century poet and viking edgar scala grimsen and the show often takes story beats from the text for example ivar's first killing is taken almost word for word from this text while arn's violent death at the hands of rolo was also taken from the saga another time they pay reference to the saga is the song sung by harold feinheir and his men which is a modified version of a poem from the text now as we have said before vikings isn't meant to be 100 historically accurate but of course it does draw inspiration from historical events and figures although ragnar and rollo are brothers in the show the two weren't at all related in reality roller who was actually based on the viking rolf was initially meant to be ragnar's cousin instead of his brother but this was changed before production started but a fun bit of trivia is that the real-life rollo aka rolf did actually conquer parts of northern france settling in normandy which is known as land of the norsemen and is actually the great great great grandfather of william the conqueror which i'm sure avid history buffs will know all too well although historians have a fair amount of knowledge on rollo ragnar is still somewhat of a mystery that's because historians still debate whether or not he actually existed ragnar is the protagonist of many norse legends and poems so when hearst came across him as he researched the show he knew that he had to be the show's hero even if he never actually existed and finally you might have been wondering whether catagat was a real place and we hate to say it but it is unfortunately fictional the set which was located in ireland was digitally inserted into norway where the fictional catagat was supposed to be located although it is actually a reference to a strait that lies between denmark and sweden and is therefore meant to represent all three of these scandinavian countries now as we say goodbye did you know this little piece of trivia clive standin and gustav skarsgard both auditioned to play ragnar travis fimmel auditioned to play rollo but fimmel actually wanted to play floki makes you wonder what might have been [Music]

Channel: Screen Rant

Views: 760,715

Keywords: Vikings, Season 6, Ending, Final Season, Things You Missed, TV Show, Historical, Fiction, Netflix, Amazon Prime, History, Travis Fimmell, Ragnar, Rollo, Lagertha, screenrant, screen rant, easter eggs, hidden details, netflix series

Id: t6yeJf191Is

Length: 15min 3sec (903 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 20 2021