‘Seven Kings Must Die’ Star and EP Alexander Dreymon Tears Up Talking About His ‘Last Kingdom’ Co-Stars

The Last Kingdom‘s epic run finally comes to an end with the Netflix film Seven Kings Must Die. Alexander Dreymon returns to the world of Bernard Cromwell’s Saxon Chronicles to play the heroic Uhtred of Bebbanburg one last time. Over the course of five seasons and this new feature film, we’ve watched as Uhtred narrowly survived a brutal childhood, grew up as a Saxon among Danes, fell in and out of love with various beautiful and feisty women, and retook his birthright, Bebbanburg, with the aid of his trusted friends. While The Last Kingdom might have wrapped up with Uhtred, son of Uhtred, returning home, there’s still one more story Seven Kings Must Die has to tell… the story of how England became unified in the first place.

Seven Kings Must Die opens with the death of King Edward (Timothy Innes), putting his eldest son Aethelstan (Harry Gilby) in line for the throne. Uhtred is initially pleased for his former friend and ward, but soon learns that Aethelstan is not the sweet boy he knew. Aethelstan is now under the power of a Christian advisor named Ingilmundr (Laurie Davidson) who is encouraging the young monarch to act as a tyrant. Meanwhile, Finan’s (Mark Rowley) beloved wife Ingrith (Ilona Chevakova) has had a prophetic vision that England will only be united after seven kings die and the woman Uhtred loves dies as well.

Earlier this month, a bunch of Last Kingdom fans were lucky enough to catch an early screening of Seven Kings Must Die on the big screen at the Paris Theater in New York City. Decider was on hand to not only watch the film, but interview Seven Kings Must Die star and executive producer Alexander Dreymon before the screening. Dreymon was incredibly charming — perching himself on a coffee table so as not to wrinkle his suit before the photo call — and emotional when talking about his friends and co-stars Arnas Fedaravicius and Mark Rowley. He explained what he hoped to bring to Seven Kings Must Die as a producer, revealed his favorite Last Kingdom scene, and dished how he’s hungry to star in a rom-com…

DECIDER: So how are you feeling? This is the premiere of this film that you’ve produced, you’ve starred in. It’s the end of a journey.

ALEXANDER DREYMON: I’m feeling great. And I’m so, so grateful that it all came together, you know. It’s really thanks to my team and, you know, they’ve worked so, so hard to make it happen. Yes, it’s wonderful to be here.

So, yeah, this is potentially, supposedly, the end of Uhtred’s journey. You’ve been for basically a decade. Are you satisfied with where we leave him?

Yes, definitely. I think it’s a wonderful way to wrap up the story because, like, Bernard Cornwell says this – how did, did I? I’m just worried that I’ve said this before, but he just puts it so eloquently. He compares it to Gone with the Wind where you’ve got the big story, which is the war, and you’ve got the small story, which is Scarlett’s story and the stories are flipped. And in The Last Kingdom, it’s the same thing. Uhtred is the little story and the creation of England is the big story. And of course, we flip and Uhtred becomes the big story. And so at the end of the series, at the end of Season 5, we wrap up Uhtred’s story with him getting back Bebbanburg, and then the movie is really about wrapping up the creation of England.

Speaking of just the last season wrapping up Uhtred’s story, I always felt watching as a viewer that it was equally Brida’s story. Her story ends in the last season and you’ve been with her since the first episode. Was it weird to, like, finish this out with a film and not have Emily Cox there, along with some of the other cast?

Of course, of course. It was just yesterday, I went through videos of that time when we shot the movie and I came across videos that I was making like video messages for the other cast members that weren’t there. And I was telling them how much I missed them and how strange it was to make it without them.

So you were an EP on this as well. What did you hope to lend to the film as a producer in terms of your voice or what you could add to it?

I’m obsessed with realism and I always try to make sure that the emotional arc in each scene was something that I felt was organically and genuinely portrayable as an actor. I don’t know if that makes sense, and I don’t want it to sound like I had to fight for that. Obviously, that’s everybody’s goal. But I think as an actor, you just have an insight into what an emotional journey looks like throughout a scene and how you can get from, from one point, from one emotional point to the next and what you need in order to get there and make it feel real. So I’m hoping that I brought that.

So I talked to Nigel Marchant about this and he said that what you guys wanted to accomplish with this was something a little bit bigger than just a two hour episode of The Last Kingdom. You wanted to go bigger, you wanted there to be scale. We’re getting the Battle of Brunanburh, the largest battle that had been on English soil in history to that point. Can you give any teases for the fans before this comes out what to expect in terms of grandeur? In terms of fight choreography?

Well, the battle is epic. I’m so happy with it. Levente Lezsak, who has been our stunt coordinator from day one, has killed it. I’m so proud of him and his whole team. Tamás Katrics, who was my stunt double, and also our fight master along with the rest of his team, they have put together amazing choreography and I think it looks gritty and scary and stressful. I was gripping my seat when I just rewatched it about a week ago to get myself back into it. And during the battle I was tense, which is exactly what you want.

Can you compare it to any of the other battle scenes that maybe fans have seen on the show or elsewhere?

Well, hopefully it’s different. That’s the challenge in a show like that that runs for so long and has so many battles. How do you keep it fresh? But I’m confident that we accomplished that.

I also asked Nigel about the fact that we’re about to see it on the big screen. Most people are not. They’re going to see it on their TV, laptop, iPhones. So, in your ideal world, would Last Kingdom fans have the opportunity to watch this in a movie theater? Has there been this discussion about smaller screens?

Oh my god, I mean, ideally you’d watch everything in the movie theater, of course. Also it’s not only the scale of the screen, but also the common experience. I’ve experienced this just lately with my fiancée [Alison Williams] who had a movie coming out called M3GAN. We watched many cuts of it at home on our couch and seeing it for the first time in a theater when it premiered with a bunch of other people just gave the movie a whole different dimension. It was so much fun. There’s so much humor in it which you kind of see, but not really until you see it with a bunch of other people, you know? It’s so much better watching it in theaters and I really hope that collectively we’re going back to that more and more.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alexander Dreymon (@alexander.dreymon)

Yeah. Do you have a favorite scene in your whole time working on The Last Kingdom that, you know, people might not be expecting to be your favorite scene? Whether it’s a small moment, a battle scene. Is there one moment that you’re just really proud of and you hope people will remember the most?

Oh my god, I mean, there are a million moments, of course. One that always sticks out to me is the one towards the end of Season 3, with David Dawson who plays King Alfred: that bromance coming to an end when they have that talk, you know, in that legendary library. That was a wonderful scene to shoot. David is just the best to work with, and it was so heartfelt and emotional and well written and really deserved after all that conflict that they both went through. They finally were able to meet each other and look each other in the eye and acknowledge the respect that they have for each other.

This has been a decade of your life. People have grown up and changed, gone on to other things. If you could go back to Alexander working on the pilot, what would you want to say to him now, in terms of advice about this journey that he’s about to embark on?

I would tell him do a better job at learning Hungarian because obviously, at the time, I didn’t know we were going to be in Hungary for this long.I think, you know, at the beginning, I went to classes, actually, with Emily and it became clear very fast that it was going to be a time investment that we didn’t really have. It’s an incredibly hard language to learn. But if I had known that we were going to be there for that long, I would have done a better job with that. And it’s a shame that I missed out on that. I can’t say that I had much spare time ever while we were working on that show, but I could have focused on it a little bit more. I think it’s the only thing.

In terms of work, I mean, I’m really happy with the way it went, you know? I don’t have any regrets. I would love to add one thing to when you asked me about the favorite scenes. You know, I really have to give a shout out to Arnas Fedaravicius and Mark Rowley who were my two buddies on the show and who have always supported Uhtred on screen. But, you know, they really did the same for me off screen and…(He tears up.) Sorry.

No, it’s ok. No, it’s fine.

And especially, especially, while filming the movie, you know, they really supported me and I’m so grateful.

That’s amazing. Yeah. Shifting gears. We love the bromance on the show. But you directed an episode in Season 5. Is directing something that you want to do going forward? Do you want to just focus on acting, producing? Do you want to direct more television, perhaps films? What’s next?

I am so hooked. I enjoyed every moment of directing, even the really tough ones. It was exhilarating and exciting and I’m so passionate about it. So yes, I do want to continue directing. The medium is less important to me. The story is important to me. And yeah, I can’t wait to do it again.

You know, you’re sort of almost synonymous with Uhtred now. And how do you feel about A) having that legacy of people who are such huge fans of the show and B) what do you hope for next? Do you want to do comedy? Do you want to do more theater?

I mean, I did a lot of theater before [The Last Kingdom] when I was living in Paris, and then when I was training and after that in London, so it’s something I would love to go back to if it’s the right thing. But yes, I mean, in front of the camera, I would love to do comedy for sure. I’ve been aching to do comedy for a long time. Also a rom com. There is a lack of rom coms at the moment.

I think everyone’s really hungry for rom coms.

Exactly, exactly. And so I’m really hoping that we’re gonna get a lot of good rom coms back and if I can be part of one of those I’d be super stoked, yeah.

Amazing, amazing. This is kind of a silly question, but are you relieved that you no longer have to shave the sides of your head to stay in character? Or is that something that you enjoy doing?

You know what? That haircut is so practical. It’s so easy. You have to shave it and of course somebody else needs to do it because you can’t be – if I did it myself in the back there, I’d either go too far and I’d have little holes or I would not go far enough and have the layers sticking out. So, it’s been amazing to have somebody who does that for you every second day on set. But the rest of it, it is so easy because all you need to do is put it in a bun and you’re done. You just roll out of bed, you know. I actually miss that.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Seven Kings Must Die is now streaming on Netflix.