The Last Kingdom is premiering its fifth and final season on Netflix today, March 9th, 2022. While the series will receive a spin-off film, Seven Kings Must Die, soon, fans are bummed about the cancellation of the series after five seasons.
Based on Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Stories, the historical drama series premiered in 2015 and dealt with the various brutal Nordic invasions during the reign of Saxons where the monarch tried to defend his kingdom and unite all provinces into the United Kingdom. The show is mainly told via Alexnder Dreymon’s character, Uhtred’s perspective.
Helmed by showrunner Jon East, the show chronicles nearly five decades of ancient history that has been described as “866 following the Great Heathen Army’s arrival in Britain, focusing on the resistance of the Kingdom of Wessex to ongoing Viking incursions to Southern England.”
The show released the trailer a few weeks back, promising intense and brutal imagery and an imminent battle with an emotional ending.
The show has always adapted two of Cornwell’s books per season. With Cornwell having published just ten books, season five is logically the last season that will bring an end to his series.
Although Cornwell later published three other books, War of the Wolf, Sword of Kings and War Lord, they will sadly not be included in the series adapted from books nine and ten, namely Warriors of the Storm and The Flame Bearer.
Dreymon told the audience, “When we started shooting the show, there were ten books that Bernard Cornwell had written, and we had structured the show in a way that season five was always going to be the last season.”
Although Uhtred will make a return in Seven Kings Must Die that will be adapted from Cornwell’s three final books, the series is, unfortunately, coming to an end. The two-hour feature film began filming in early 2022.
