Vikings season 5

The fifth season of the historical drama television series Vikings premiered on 29 November 2017 on History in Canada. The series broadly follows the exploits of the legendary Viking chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok and his crew, and later those of his sons.
The fifth season consists of a double-season order of twenty episodes, split into two parts of ten episodes each; the first part concluded on 24 January 2018. The second half premiered on 28 November 2018. The premise of the fifth season differs from the previous four after the departure of Travis Fimmel as Ragnar, and it follows the adventures of his living sons. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is introduced as a main character, after his initial appearance in the fourth season's finale. The season concluded in its entirety on 30 January 2019.
Three main characters who died in previous seasons briefly appear played by body doubles: Sigurd's corpse is briefly shown in "The Fisher King", King Ecbert appears in "The Fisher King" as a corpse and in "Baldur" as a cloaked figure, and Athelstan is seen as a cloaked figure in "The Departed".
An Irish-Canadian co-production presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the fifth season of Vikings was developed and produced by TM Productions and Take 5 Productions. Morgan O'Sullivan, Sheila Hockin, Sherry Marsh, Alan Gasmer, James Flynn, John Weber, and Michael Hirst are credited as executive producers. This season was produced by Keith Thompson for the first four and last four episodes, and Liz Gill for the fifth to sixteenth episodes. Bill Goddard and Séamus McInerney are co-producers.
The production team for this season includes casting directors Frank and Nuala Moiselle, costume designer Susan O'Connor Cave, visual effects supervisor Dominic Remane, stunt action designer Richard Ryan, composer Trevor Morris, production designer Mark Geraghty, editors Aaron Marshall for the first, third, fifth, tenth, fourteenth, seventeenth and twentieth episodes, Tad Seaborn for the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, thirteenth, sixteenth and nineteenth episodes, Michele Conroy for the seventh, ninth and eleventh episodes, Dan Briceno for the twelfth episode, and Don Cassidy for the fifteenth and eighteenth episodes and cinematographers PJ Dillon for the first and second episodes, Peter Robertson for the third, fourth, and seventh to sixteenth episodes, Suzie Lavelle for the fifth, sixth, seventeenth and eighteenth episodes, and Owen McPolin for the nineteenth and twentieth episodes.
At the same time that the series was renewed for a fifth season, it was announced that Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers would be joining the cast, as Heahmund, a "warrior bishop". Vikings creator Michael Hirst, explained: "I was looking at the history books, and I came across these warrior bishops. The antecedents of the Knights Templar: these are people who were absolutely religious, yet they put on armor and they fought. Don't let their priestly status fool you, either. They were crazy! They believed totally in Christianity and the message, and yet, on the battlefield, they were totally berserk."
Former WWE star Adam Copeland was cast in a recurring role for the fifth season, as Kjetill Flatnose, a violent and bold warrior. He is chosen by Floki to join an expedition to set up a colony in a new land. Irish actor Darren Cahill plays the role of Aethelred in the fifth season. Nigerian actor Stanley Amuzie told local media he had landed a small role in the fifth season. The fifth season also includes Irish actor, musician and real-life police detective, Kieran O'Reilly, who plays the role of White Hair. In April 2017 it was announced that Danish actor Erik Madsen had joined the cast for the fifth season, as King Hemming. He spent several months of 2016 on the set of The Last Kingdom, portraying a Viking.
As with previous seasons, most of the season was shot at Ashford Studios with most exteriors filmed around County Wicklow.
Scenes taking place in Sicily and Egypt were shot at Atlas Corporation Studios in Morocco. Floki's landing on Iceland was filmed in Vík í Mýrdal. The rest of the scenes in Iceland were shot on Ireland with digital backdrops.
The musical score for the fifth season was composed by Trevor Morris in collaboration with Einar Selvik. The opening sequence is again accompanied by the song "If I Had a Heart" by Fever Ray.
The soundtrack album was released on 27 December 2019 by Sony Classical Records. An additional original song not included in the album is "Skidarima", written and performed by Einar Selvik and featured in "Homeland".
Additional non-original music by Norwegian music group Wardruna is featured in the episodes "The Plan" and "A Simple Story". The featured tracks are "MannaR - Drivande", "Løyndomsriss", and "Heimta Thurs".
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 91% approval rating, with an average rating of 8.10/10 based on 11 reviews. The consensus reads: "Brutal battles and epic quests help Vikings' fifth season remain an engaging, exciting journey." IGN awarded episode 10, "Moments of Vision", with a rating of 9 out of 10. Entertainment Weekly gave the episode an "A".
The second half of the season drew some criticism. Writing in Forbes, Erik Kain said: "the show continues to falter, an unfortunate mix of melodrama, one-note characters and absurd fantasy parading as historical fiction" and that the show "has simply lost its way". In "A Simple Story", Aethelred is portrayed rejecting the throne in favour of his younger brother Alfred. In history, after the death of Aethelwulf, three of Alfred's elder brothers ruled, for two, five and six years respectively, all dying before Alfred took the throne in 871. Writing in Forbes, Erik Kain described the storyline as "just a huge unforced error".