Line #27 Trivia/TheLastKingdom


1	* CaliforniaDoubling: Although the series is set in England, most of the scenes were filmed in UsefulNotes/{{Hungary}}.
2	* DawsonCasting:
3	** A justified case with sixty-one year old Simon Kunz as Odda the Elder. Odda is forty when Uhtred first meets him, but he is YoungerThanTheyLook, due to his hair being completely grey, thus an older actor would make a sufficient amount of sense.
4	** A similar case with the thirty-three year old David Dawson playing Alfred, who is twenty-two at the start of the series. The novels explicitly state that Alfred looks about ten years older than his actual age.
5	** A less-justified (but not completely unjustified) case with the actresses who play Aelswith and UsefulNotes/{{Aethelflaed}}. Throughout the series, Aelswith is played by Eliza Butterworth, while [=Æthelflæd=] as an adult is played by Creator/MillieBrady (i.e. from Series 2 onward). One problem: Eliza Butterworth is less than 6 months older than Millie Brady. (This is largely resolved with makeup.)
6	** Alexander Dreymon portrays a 20-something Uhtred quite convincingly for a man in his 30s.
7	* DuellingShows:
8	** In a generic "medieval TV" way to ''Series/GameOfThrones'' and another new show ''Series/TheBastardExecutioner''. Since ''The Last Kingdom'' got a second season and ''The Bastard Executioner'' didn't, ''Kingdom'' can safely be said to have won on that score. Meanwhile, the fact that ''Thrones'' creator Creator/GeorgeRRMartin claimed that he lacked the time to watch the later seasons of his own books' adaptation but [[https://twitter.com/grrmspeaking/status/895322573499543552?lang=en evidently found time]] to enjoy and recommend ''Last Kingdom'' was also seen as somewhat of a win for ''Last Kingdom''.
9	** More importantly, with ''Series/{{Vikings}}'' - which overlaps with ''The Last Kingdom'' in portraying earlier Viking attacks on England, making it a prequel of sorts until later seasons of ''Vikings'' overlap directly. Ragnar Lothbrok, the semi-historical initial protagonist of ''Vikings'', is even the putative father of Ubba, the initial villain of ''The Last Kingdom'', though the show (unlike the books) downplays this.
10	* FakeBrit:
11	** Uhtred is played by Alexander Dreymon, who was born in Germany and grew up in the United States, France, and Switzerland.
12	** King [=Æthelred=] is played by Scottish actor Alec Newman.
13	** Odda the Younger is played by Scottish actor Brian Vernel.
14	** Iseult is played by Irish actress Charlie Murphy
15	** Father Selbix is played by Irish actor Lorcan Cranitch.
16	** Hild is played by Irish actress Eva Birthistle.
17	** Brother Trew is played by Irish actor Peter [=McDonald=].
18	** Cenric is played by Hungarian actor Máté Haumann.
19	* FakeIrish: Finan is played by Scottish actor Mark Rowley.
20	* FakeNationality: The Anglo-Saxons used the word "Dane" to refer to any Scandinavian Viking raider, so the numerous Swedish and Norwegian actors playing "Danes" are not necessarily this. However, some non-Scandinavian actors have also played Danes:
21	** Brida is a Saxon by birth and a Dane by upbringing, but Emily Cox is Austrian.
22	** Ravn is played by Dutch actor Rutger Hauer.
23	** Sihtric is played by Lithuanian actor Arnas Fedaravičius.
24	** Gisela is played by German actress Peri Baumeister.
25	** Tekil is played by German actor Marc Rissmann.
26	** Jackdaw is played by Dutch actor Tygo Gernandt.
27	** Many Danish {{Bit Character}}s and extras are played by Hungarians.
28	* FakeScot: King Constantine is played in English actor Rod Hallett.
29	* FollowTheLeader:
30	** The show was almost certainly greenlit due to the success of ''Vikings'' and ''Game of Thrones'' even though Creator/BernardCornwell's ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'' novels proved very successful on television back in ''[[TheNineties the 1990s]]'', his ''[[Literature/TheSaxonStories Saxon Stories]]'' predate ''Vikings'' by about a decade, and he and ''Thrones'' creator Creator/GeorgeRRMartin are [[http://www.bernardcornwell.net/interview-with-george-r-r-martin/ mutual fans]].
31	** ''VideoGame/ThronesOfBritanniaATotalWarSaga'' was created to capitalize on the success of the series right down to the setting and playable factions.
32	** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedValhalla'' was very much inspired by ''The Last Kingdom'' right down to having the same setting, the presence of King Alfred the Great, a similar cast of characters and even sharing at least two actors from the show (Creator/MagnusBruun and Jeppe Beck Laursen).
33	* IronyAsSheIsCast: Bernard Cornwell originally wrote his most famous character Richard Sharpe as a lean, dark-haired Londoner only to fall in love with Creator/SeanBean's big, blond OopNorth portrayal of the character. When it came to writing ''The Last Kingdom'', Cornwell wrote Uhtred as a big, blond Northumbrian only for the TV series to cast lean, dark-haired Alexander Dreymon in the role.

Context Trivia / TheLastKingdom