'Vikings' Scores Early Season 6 Renewal Ahead of Season 5 Premiere

The History Channel, under the A&E Network, has officially ordered “Vikings” Season 6 with a total of 20 episodes for the hit drama series. This news comes ahead of the Season 5 premiere this November. Along with the season renewal, series regular Katherine Winnick is also set to direct an episode in “Vikings” Season 6. Production is set to begin this fall in Ireland.
“Vikings” Season 5 is set to be shown in two parts, starting off with a two-hour premiere Wednesday, November 19th at 9 PM followed by the remaining 8 episodes. The second part of the show will premiere sometime in 2018.

‘Vikings’ strong ratings leads to another new exciting season

“Vikings” has proven to be one of The History Channel’s strongest shows in terms of ratings. Season 4 went on to have an average of 7.8 million viewers per episode across every platform, including streams. “Vikings” is also among the top five dramas across ad-supported cable subscriptions.
“Vikings has creatively sailed to monumental lengths. The series has evolved from early raids in England, to the heart-stopping death of Ragnar Lothbrok, to the fierce battles of the Great Heathen Army, and now we’ll see the sons of Ragnar exploring and conquering the known world,” Eli Lehrer, EVP Programming for History said. “Michael Hirst has only scratched the surface of his epic saga. We look forward to continuing our partnership with one of the greatest writers in this era of Peak TV and entertaining our viewers with 40 new episodes over the next two seasons.”

Katherine Winnick’s directorial debut

As for Winnick, the actress’ most recent project was the Stephen King adaptation “Dark Tower” along with Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. She is also set to star in “Cigarette” with John Travolta. “Vikings” will be Winnick’s first directorial project.
Winnick plays shield maiden and Queen of Kattegat Lagertha in “Vikings.” That role has granted her a “Best Supporting Actress” nomination at the 2015 Critic’s Choice Awards and a “Best Performance by a Lead Dramatic Actress” at the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards.

“Vikings” creator and executive producer Michael Hirst had this to say about the sixth season: “It has been my pleasure and my privilege to work with History and our partner MGM over five seasons and 69 episodes of ‘Vikings’. Now we are ready to begin production of a 20-episode Season 6 that will deliver a huge and unexpected revelation to our audience. There are many reasons why I love this show, not least for the commitment and creativity of everyone involved in making it, but perhaps even more important is the spirit that drives this production – one of the happiest, most collaborative and most authentic productions I have ever been involved with. And so we sail on.”
Considering Season 5 hasn’t even aired yet, fans can only imagine what the “huge and unexpected revelation” will be for the sixth season. The previous season said goodbye to many of its major characters and so this might also tease more deaths and losses for “Vikings” season 6.