'Vikings' Season 3 Air Date, Plot Spoilers: Ragnar Frightens the Mercians in New Season Trailer
Days from "Vikings" return to The History Channel, the show released a short clip of the upcoming season exclusively to Entertainment Weekly which shows Ragnar Lothbrok's battle with the English kingdom of Mercia.
In the video, Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) returns to Wessex and keeps Mercian fighters at bay by striking fear into their hearts. As the Mercians grimly wait for Ragnar's arrival at the shore, his ship comes into view. As the ship parts the thick fog, the Mercians see that Ragnar has decorated it with severed heads, while Ragnar himself smiles at the Mercians in anticipation of his winning the battle.
Joining Ragnar is his son Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig), Rollo (Clive Standen), Ragnar's ex-wife Lagartha (Katheryn Winnick), and friend Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard). Bjorn's love interest and shield maiden, Porunn (Gaia Weiss) also gets to battle for the first time.
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"Vikings" creator Michael Hirst shares the credit for the scene with Fimmel.
"I think Travis had the idea for the shot," said Hirst to Entertainment Weekly. "It's a very powerful scene. The reason the Vikings had this reputation for terrible cruelty and uber-violence is that they had limited manpower. They traveled maybe three ships at a time, with twenty-five or thirty warriors. That's the limit. There are no reinforcements. They don't know who they're going to meet. They might be encountering hundreds of enemy warriors."
So what exactly is the Vikings' strategy for fighting a large army?
"Shock and awe," says Hirst. "When you see Ragnar, traveling in a boat, with the heads of all these Mercians strung out on the shop: That is shock and awe. In the show, the Mercians run away — and that's exactly what happened! The Vikings had such a reputation, and that was part of their myth."
This season, Ragnar has ascended to king and promises to fight King Ecbert's foes in exchange for farming land. But Ragnar also has his sights set on Paris, which he learns is an impregnable city, which makes it very intriguing for him.
"Vikings" season 3 premieres on Thursday, Feb. 19 at 10 p.m. on the History Channel.
