'Bloodaxe' Stars and Filmmakers Talk About the New Viking Show's Elaborate Sets and Avoidance of CGI Entirely

Speaking with The Direct and others at New York Comic Con, the showrunners and cast of Prime Video's upcoming series Bloodaxe discussed the show's development, with insight on the father-son writing team and stories from set.

The upcoming historical drama tells the story of famous Norse raider Erik Bloodaxe and his wife, Gunnhild, Mother of Kings.Vikings creator Michael Hirst and his son Horatio Hurst are showrunners on the series, debuting January 20.

Horatio Hirst said that family — fathers and sons especially — is fittingly "at the heart of this story." In fact, according to Horatio Hurst, the inclusion of "three fathers and sons in the first episode" alone was not purposeful:

Horatio Hirst: "At the heart of this story, it is about family. You know, it is about fathers and sons. There are three fathers and sons in the first episode, and we didn't even realize that until someone else told us about it."

According to Horatio Hirst, the father-son showrunner team has "actually never argued about anything" in the writing process, something he admits "is very rare." Having grown up as his father worked on Vikings, Horatio Hirst says he views writing Bloodaxe with his father as "very important," and "amazing:"

Horatio Hirst: "We've actually never argued about anything. I mean, we which which I can completely appreciate is very rare, and I was I'm surprised by that as well. ... People say that's tricky, you know, father son writing teams, but ... for me it's been an incredibly important experience of my life and I was on the Viking set when I was 12, have grown up around this. To be able to come in now and you know co-write and co-create and you know with Michael, my dad, it's, like, it's amazing."

Michael Hirst says he simply does not "see a point in arguing or quarelling," reasoning that a person "can't be absolutely right:"

Michael Hurst: I would never see a point in arguing or quarelling, and because you can't be absolutely right, you know. ... If someone says to you, 'Well, on the other hand,' ... you should go, 'Yeah, OK, I understand that. We might play with that.'"

Bloodaxe Cast Shares Stories from Show's Elaborate Set

When it comes to Bloodaxe's production, the cast offered insight into just how elaborate everything truly was.

Jessica Madsen (Gunnhild) described how she went into a scene thinking it was going to be intimate and quiet, only to be greeted with "200 extras down below us," a variety of animals, and an overall sense of "noise and chaos:"

Jessica Madsen: "I was so overwhelmed. There were there were like 200 extras down below us, and someone was like chopping meat with this giant ax, and then there were rams and there were horses and there were pigs and like there were chickens and ducks and like there was just so much noise and chaos and like bonfires and smoke and I was like I was like a deer in headlights."

She explained that, having been on Bridgerton before this, she was more "used to, like, sipping some tea," and that she found "the scale of the location and the world that we create" to be "really palpable:"

Jessica Madsen: "I'm used to ballrooms, but I'm also used to like sipping some tea, and, you know, the scale of of the location and the world that we create at every given moment was, like, really palpable, and I was just like, 'Whoa, OK.'"

Levi Miller (Haakon) said he was surprised by "how practical a lot of the work we were doing was." He pointed to the Viking ships, in particular, saying he assumed they might be "on a tank" in front of "a blue screen," but in the end there were real ships "actually out rowing in the lake."

Miller said that having these real, practical sets was "so, so helpful" for him as an actor, as it gave him "that textural kind of feeling:"

Levi Miller: "[The] biggest surprise, I think, [was] how practical a lot of the work we were doing was. ... The big sticking thing in my head is the Viking ships. In my head, it was always [that] they were in, like, maybe on a tank, and there was a blue screen, and they'd put the the mountain behind there ... But we'd arrive to set on the days, and they've got these Viking ships actually out rowing in the lake, and that... I mean, that was really quite early on, and I was like, 'Whoa, no, we're fully- we're fully in it.' ... The whole practical nature of it was, for actors, I mean, it's so, so helpful to have that that textural kind of feeling."

As for Xavier Molyneux (Erik Bloodaxe), he found himself "with all these nicks on [his] fingers" as he worked on these real sets, emphasizing that there was "no sort of CGI or anything like that."

He described how "grueling" the constant choreographing and filming of fight scenes could get, noting that "as soon as you finish the fight, you're choreographing the next one." As such, he said he is "excited" to see the final product that came from all the hard work:

Xavier Molyneux: "It's grueling, and as soon as you finish a fight, you're choreographing the next one, and then as soon as you finish the scene, you jam your head forward the next. It's been a grueling process for me, but at the end of it, I'm so excited for everybody to see this to go. 'Oh, we did it!' ... Like, you just end up with all these nicks on your fingers and stuff like that because we're doing these for real, not with like real axe stuff, but like it's real combat. None of that, no sort of CGI or anything like that. It's all real."

Molyneux also described the elaborate process of getting bloody for battle scenes, saying the makeup artist "stands behind the camera, and aims for your eye, and they shoot blood," indicating that this could sometimes happen mid-scene:

Xavier Molyneux: "There's a lot of blood, and we're doing the battle scenes, and we've got this makeup artist called Tom McNerney who's done them from the beginning. ... He stands behind the camera and aims for your eye, and they shoot blood ... So you'd be halfway through like a fight scene, and then you go, 'Oh shit, Tom!'"

Season 1 of Bloodaxe premieres on Prime Video on January 20, with a second season already having been announced.