It’s been over a decade. Since Michael Hirst first dropped us into the cold, gray waters of Kattegat back in 2013, the landscape of historical drama has changed completely. But if you look back at the Vikings cast season one, there is something raw there that the later seasons—and certainly the spin-offs—never quite captured. It wasn't just about the budget. It was about the faces.
Travis Fimmel wasn't a superstar then. He was a former model with piercing blue eyes that seemed to look through people rather than at them. When he was cast as Ragnar Lothbrok, the industry shrugged. By the end of the first nine episodes, he’d redefined what a Viking looked like on screen. No horned helmets. No mindless shouting. Just a curious, slightly terrifying farmer who wanted to see what was across the ocean.
The Core Trio That Built Kattegat
Most people forget how small the show felt at the start. It was intimate. You had Ragnar, his wife Lagertha, and his brother Rollo. That’s the engine.
Katheryn Winnick’s Lagertha was a revelation. Honestly, she arguably became the face of the show more than Fimmel did by the end of her run. In season one, she wasn't a "Queen" yet. She was a shield-maiden holding down a farm. Winnick brought a physicality to the role that felt earned, mostly because she’s an actual black belt in martial arts and a licensed bodyguard in real life. When she fights those two men who try to take advantage of her while Ragnar is away, it doesn't look like choreographed dancing. It looks like a struggle for survival.
Then there’s Clive Standen. Rollo is a character defined by the shadow he lives in. Standen played him with this simmering, low-boil resentment that made every scene with Ragnar feel like it might end in a hug or a stabbing. It was usually both.
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The Weirdness of Floki and Athelstan
If Ragnar was the brain and Lagertha was the heart, Floki was the nervous system. Gustaf Skarsgård—yes, of those Skarsgårds—took a role that could have been a cartoon and made it haunting. He giggles. He wears eye makeup that looks like dried blood. He builds boats. But in season one, Floki represents the old ways, the fanatical devotion to the gods that contrasts sharply with the show's other breakout star: George Blagden.
Athelstan is our proxy. As the Anglo-Saxon monk captured during the raid on Lindisfarne, he’s the audience. We see the "savagery" of the Northmen through his terrified eyes. The chemistry between Blagden and Fimmel is what actually anchors the show. It’s a platonic love story built on cultural curiosity. Ragnar doesn't just want Athelstan’s gold; he wants his god. He wants to know how the sun stone works. He wants to know why this man won't fight back.
Supporting Players Who Actually Mattered
We need to talk about Gabriel Byrne. Having an actor of his caliber as Earl Haraldson in the Vikings cast season one gave the debut season immediate prestige. Haraldson wasn't a "villain" in the mustache-twirling sense. He was a man who had lost his sons and was desperately gripping onto power as it slipped through his fingers. He was the old guard. He represented the stagnant status quo that Ragnar had to break to move the culture forward.
Jessalyn Gilsig played Siggy, the Earl's wife. Her journey is one of the most complex in the early years. She goes from the height of power to washing floors in a single season. Gilsig played that transition with a cold, calculating dignity that often gets overlooked when fans discuss the flashier warrior characters.
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And who could forget the Seer? John Kavanagh, buried under pounds of prosthetic makeup and black goo, provided the show's supernatural backbone. Even though the show tried to stay grounded in "history," the Seer’s presence suggested that maybe, just maybe, Odin was actually watching.
Why the Season One Chemistry Worked
The production wasn't massive yet. They were filming in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland, often in miserable, wet conditions. You can see it on their faces. The dirt under the fingernails isn't makeup; it’s Ireland.
- Authenticity: The cast spent time in actual longships.
- Vulnerability: Unlike later seasons where everyone felt like an untouchable superhero, season one characters got hurt. They got sick. They were afraid of the sea.
- Pacing: With only nine episodes, there was no filler. Every member of the Vikings cast season one had a specific job to do in the narrative.
The show worked because it leaned into the "History" part of History Channel. It didn't try to be Game of Thrones. It tried to be a gritty, ethnographic study of a people we thought we knew, played by actors who looked like they actually belonged in the mud.
The Legacy of the Original Lineup
When you look at the trajectory of the Vikings cast season one, it's wild to see where they ended up. Fimmel went on to lead massive blockbusters like Warcraft. Winnick directed episodes of the show she once starred in. Alexander Ludwig, who played the young Bjorn (though the older Bjorn we all know didn't appear until later), became a massive star in his own right.
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But that first year? It was lightning in a bottle. It was the moment we realized that a story about 8th-century raiders could be deeply human. It wasn't just about the axes; it was about the curiosity of a man who looked at the horizon and wondered "What if?"
How to Re-watch Vikings Like an Expert
If you're heading back to season one, don't just watch the fights. Watch the background. Look at the way the cast interacts during the feast scenes. There is a lot of unscripted movement and reactive acting that Michael Hirst encouraged to make the community feel lived-in.
- Track Athelstan’s Hair: It sounds silly, but his physical transformation tracks his loss of faith and his integration into Viking society.
- Watch the Eyes: Travis Fimmel rarely blinks when he's playing Ragnar. It gives him that predatory, otherworldly look.
- Listen to the Score: Trevor Morris used authentic Norse instruments, and the cast often had to act against music that felt dissonant and strange.
The Vikings cast season one set a bar that many historical dramas still struggle to hit. They didn't have the massive CGI armies of the later seasons, but they had a boat, a monk, and a dream. That was enough.
To truly appreciate the evolution of these characters, your next move should be a side-by-side comparison of the pilot episode "Rites of Passage" with the season four finale. You’ll see the physical toll the roles took on the actors, particularly Fimmel and Standen. Pay close attention to the way the costume design shifts from simple furs to intricate leathers, reflecting the wealth they stole from the West. This visual storytelling is only possible because the core cast stayed so committed to the grit of the original vision. Check the credits for the historical consultants used in that first year; the attention to detail in the "Thing" (the Viking assembly) is some of the most accurate representation of Norse law ever put to film.