•According to a report by Gamer24h Polygon, Prime Video’s new action drama Bloodaxe, created by Vikings showrunner Michael Hirst and his son Horatio, will premiere on January 20, 2027. The outlet compared the series’ premise to that of Game of Thrones.
The comparison was drawn during an early screening attended at New York Comic Con 2026. Based on the show’s first episode, the report suggests Prime Video “might just have a new Game of Thrones-level hit on its hands,” or “at the very least, an entertaining new show for Vikings fans.”
Bloodaxe tells the story of Eric Haraldsson (aka Eric Bloodaxe), who lived during the 10th century. When we first meet Eric, played by Xavier Molyneux, he is already a powerful warrior and popular figure in Viking society. His father, King Harald (Jesper Christensen), is beginning to lose his grip on the Norwegian kingdom he spent his life uniting. Eric expects to be named successor, but Harald instead reveals that his younger son Haakon (Levi Miller)—who spent his childhood in England learning diplomacy—will be king. Meanwhile, Eric’s wife Gunnhild (Jessica Madsen) schemes to elevate her husband to the throne, while her exiled brother Egil (Kārlis Arnolds Avots) plots his own ascension from nearby Iceland.
The report notes that a great deal of plot is packed into one hour of television. Michael and Horatio Hirst “deftly plunge us into this world headfirst,” the outlet writes, adding that like Game of Thrones, Bloodaxe “pulls out all the stops in its opening act to win over its audience—plenty of political intrigue, shocking deaths, stunning scenery, meticulous production design, beautiful actors, and gratuitous sex scenes.”
The landscapes are described as particularly stunning. Much of what is meant to be Norway was filmed in Ireland, with rugged Scandinavian mountains added digitally, while Egil’s scenes were shot on location in Iceland.
The cast ain’t bad to look at either. Molyneux resembles a lost Hemsworth brother (his breakout role was as a contestant on Australian Big Brother), while Miller bears a striking resemblance to Kit Harington’s Jon Snow.
Gamer24h Polygon
The report observes that the plot “quickly gets down into the muck,” describing a gritty world with its own morals and ethics. The core story of multiple factions vying for power and bracing for civil war feels “particularly Game of Thrones-esque,” along with prophecies, witchy rituals, and a larger theological battle between Viking paganism and rising Catholic monotheism.
The series is based on a true story drawn from history as recorded by Icelandic clerics and scholars several hundred years later. All eight episodes will arrive January 20, 2027, with season 2 already in production.
The report concludes that if the showrunners get to tell a complete story, Bloodaxe has one advantage over Game of Thrones: “This story has been set in stone for over one thousand years, which means it will be very hard for Michael and Horatio Hirst to bungle the ending.”
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