Hirst Unveils Bloodaxe, Reveals Cathar Dream Project
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- Michael Hirst is developing "Bloodaxe," a 10th-century historical drama about warrior Erik Bloodaxe, his wife Gunnhild, and the "killer and poet" Egil — season 1 was shot last year and season 2 is already in the works.
- "Bloodaxe" is set 100 years after "Vikings" with a completely new cast, and Hirst had no involvement in the follow-up "Vikings: Valhalla," calling his new show "a new world."
- Egil is framed by Hirst as "a gift from the gods" and one of Iceland's founding fathers; in the show's first episode, he sleeps with three fishermen's wives, who shield him from their husbands' wrath because "the wives wouldn't forgive them."
- The show will embrace magical realism — Hirst cited King Arthur and the Bible as examples — with a scene where Haakon, raised in England by the King of Wessex, finds Odin standing before him in a church as he tries to pray to Christ.
- Hirst's career was transformed by a late-night meeting with director Nicolas Roeg, who threw his first script out the window but pushed him toward unconventional storytelling, a path that eventually led to "Elizabeth" starring Cate Blanchett.
- Hirst's unrealized dream project is based on Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's 1975 book "Montaillou: Cathars and Catholics in a French Village," about a medieval Cathar sect branded as heretics by the Catholic Church and the Inquisition, a book Hirst found "spellbound"-ing.
Why it matters: Hirst built "Vikings" into a global History Channel franchise, and "Bloodaxe" extends his medieval brand into a new century and mythology — with magical realism as a stated tonal pivot. His still-unmade Cathar project signals an ambition far outside the warrior-king lane, tackling heresy, sexual life, and shepherds allegedly communicating with the dead in the Pyrenees.
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