The Last Kingdom film ‘Seven Kings Must Die’ could get an early 2023 release date
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The Last Kingdom is a popular television series that gathered enormous fans worldwide. The fifth and the final season of the series aired on Netflix in March 2022. But that was not the end of The Last Kingdom’s story.
The Saxon Stories book series by Bernard Cornwell has three more volumes. Following the television series, there will be a feature-length film titled 'Seven Kings Must Die' instead of The Last Kingdom Season 6.
In fact, ‘Seven Kings Must Die’ already started filming on January 31. The series star Alexander Dreymon announced that via the show’s official Twitter account. On March 20, the shooting in Budapest, Hungary was completed. At the time, Alexander released a short video clip on his Instagram page, paying a tribute to the show and movie:
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Dreymon said in the video clip “We have just shot the very last shot of The Last Kingdom. And I’m about to head into my trailer and take Uhtred’s armor off for the very last time, and I thought that would be a great moment to talk to all of you and tell you once again how incredibly grateful I am to all of you for supporting us for this long. It’s been almost eight years, and it’s been an incredible journey. And you guys are just the best fans that we could have wished for, hoped for. We love you so much. We are so, so grateful to you. And we hope that you’re gonna enjoy this last piece of The Last Kingdom, Seven Kings Must Die. We don’t know yet when it’s gonna come out, but there you go…bye.”
Release date of Seven Kings Must Die
Unfortunately, Seven Kings Must Die doesn’t have any official release date yet. However, the good news is that the filming has been wrapped up. Therefore, fans could expect the TV movie to come soon. It is expected to premiere in late 2022 or during early to mid-2023.
Why did they do ‘Seven Kings Must Die’ instead of ‘The Last Kingdom’ Season 6?
‘Seven Kings Must Die’ is a two-hour follow-up movie to The Last Kingdom. The film will be a "standalone" epilogue inspired by the final novels in the series by Bernard Cornwell: War of the Wolf, Sword of Kings and War Lord. In an interview with Radio Times, Alexander Dreymon and The Last Kingdom’s executive producer Nigel Marchant talked about why they did not continue the series after the fifth season.
“We had always planned for it to be five seasons only so it came as a surprise to no one really. When we started off there were only 10 books and so that was the arc that we had planned out... I'm quite happy with the way that it went.”
Executive producer Nigel Marchant said it was a "joint decision" between production company Carnival and distributor Netflix, which he feels came at the "right time".
"You always want to keep on top and improving season upon season and 10 hours is... it's a lot of story you tell within that and you have to be careful not to repeat," Marchant said.
British historical drama, The Last Kingdom is based on Bernard Cornwell's novel The Saxon Stories. The series portrays the story of a warrior called Uhtred of Bebbanburg. The Last Kingdom Season 5 covered the 9th and 10th series of the novel – 'The Warriors of the Storm' and 'The Flame Bearer.'
While explaining the end of Season 5 and Seven Kings Must Die, Marchant said, “the movie will be much more standalone.”
"Season 5 does feel like the end of the TV series, and the movie will be much more standalone. It'll be an extra treat for the fans of the TV series, but you could also watch it even if you've never seen the TV show," said Marchant.
He also explained that "it's always a challenge: how do we do a battle differently? How do we make sure the battles are told through emotion and not just loads of people fighting that you don't care about? And how long can you keep going with those two themes without ever getting to a climax?"
He added: "What we really wanted to do was finish [in a way] that everyone thought was satisfactory – which I hope we've done – and that we had nearly 50 episodes that felt that you had a beginning, middle and end. I think it's always nicer if you curate that, rather than it just finishes and you don't finish telling the story."
Alexander Dreymon will be back as Uhtred of Bebbanburg. According to an earlier post of Dreymon, fans could see the return of Mark Rowley as Finan. The characters who survive at the end of The Last Kingdom Season 5 might return in Seven Kings Must Die. Moreover, they have their appearance in the last three books of The Saxon Stories.
The cast includes King Edward (Timothy Innes), King Constantin(Rod Hallett), Eadgifu(Sonya Cassidy), Aethelstan (Harry Gilby), Father Pyrlig (CavanClerkin), Lady Eadith (Stefanie Martini), Aelfwynn (PhiaSaban), Aelfweard (Ewan Horrocks), Cynlaef (Ryan Quarmby), Abbess Hild (Eva Birthistle), Father Benedict (Patrick Robinson), and Aelswith (Eliza Butterworth).
Stay tuned to get more updates on Netflix TV series!
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