The Last Kingdom - Seven Kings Must Die

With the movie Seven Kings Must Die, The Last Kingdom gets another ending. Although a sixth season might have been a better form for this story. How do you conclude a story that has already been concluded? The Last Kingdom ended after five seasons last year when the warrior Uhtred (Alexander Dreymon, American Horror Story) reclaimed his castle Bebbanburg, defeating his greatest opponents in the process. All's well that ends well, right? Fortunately, history still went on, which somewhat justifies the existence of this film.

England consists of several kingdoms that are against each other. After the death of King Edward of Wessex, his son Aethelstan (Harry Gilby, Holby City) succeeds him. Aethelstan is known in history as the king who managed to unite all kingdoms into one England. In the movie Seven Kings Must Die we see how Uhtred tries to help Aethelstan with this and what role the prophecy that seven kings must die plays in this.

Seven Kings Must Die offers exactly what makes the series so much fun.

Nice that there is still enough material for a sequel, but was a film like this really necessary? In itself, the story is told after five seasons. Seven Kings Must Die mainly offers more of what made The Last Kingdom so much fun to watch, such as battles and political intrigue. In that respect, the film does not disappoint. Here and there you can ask questions about illogical things in the story. For example, sixty years have passed since season one and Uhtred still looks like a man in his late thirties. Which anti-wrinkle cream does he use? Due to the high entertainment value, things like this don't bother much.

The pace is also very high again. There is a lot of action and there are plenty of brutal moments that are beautifully portrayed as we are used to from the series. Because scenes and events follow each other quickly, the story never gets boring. The acting is also nice. Dreymon plays Uhtred with obvious pleasure and it's also nice to see some familiar faces, such as Father Pyrlig (Cavan Clerkin, The Capture) and Uhtred's comrade-in-arms Finan (Mark Rowley, The Witcher: Blood Origin).

The story does not fit into the two hours that the film lasts.

The fast pace is also the biggest flaw in this film. The story is told in just under two hours and as a viewer, you notice that that is really too little time. Although the necessary characters from the series return in addition to Uhtred, we also get to see a whole series of newcomers. Some characters hardly get time to introduce themselves or they are already being hunted to the sword. As a result, some emotional moments have less impact and the film feels very full at times.

In this case, the story could have come into its own better if a little more time had been put into exploring the characters and their motivations. The choice to make a film out of this is therefore a strange one. It would have made more sense to me if the creators had made a sixth season to tell this story. And then it doesn't have to be ten episodes like in the series, but four or five. That really should be enough.

Nevertheless, Seven Kings Must Die is a nice conclusion to The Last Kingdom. It offers exactly those things that also make the series so much fun. Unlike the other series that Netflix recently made a movie about (Luther), the ending of this movie really leaves no room for sequels.