The History Channel renewed “Vikings” for a 10-episode third season on March 25, and fans are sharpening their battle axes for the bloody raid that creator Michael Hirst promised after the Season 2 finale aired.

Although most of Season 3 will take place in Ireland, Hirst revealed the cast and crew will say “au revoir” to the Emerald Isle when they set sail for another beautiful location: Paris. But unfortunately the bearded and braided beauties of Kattegat will have no time to tour the City of Lights, considering they’ll be trying to destroy it from the second their ships touch the French shore.

“We’re in a new place, because Ragnar is a king now,” Hirst spoke of the coming season. “Halfway through season three, we’re going to attack Paris — there’s a famous Viking attack on the city of Paris. And they attacked with 120 ships. So this new season, we go from eight ships to 120 ships. You have to go up in scale.”

That sounds pretty serious to us. But don’t take our word for it! Just take a peek at Katheryn Winnick or Alexander Ludwig’s Instagram accounts to see just how brutal Season 3 will be. A picture does speak a thousand words after all.

Winnick, who plays Lagertha on the History Channel series, is no stranger to posting behind-the-scenes pics. But her most recent photo, which appears to be taken from the set of Season 3, showed a darker side to her usual breathtaking images. In one particular Instagram image, Winnick was spotted looking lovely as ever – well, as lovely as someone can look covered in blood.

Winnick seemed to be embracing her inner “Carrie,” with her ensemble that looked as if buckets of pig’s blood were poured on top of her.

“Don’t mess with me,” she captioned the eerie photo proving that unlike Carrie, she’s the one who caused this mess. “#Lagertha #behindthescenes #inamood #Vikings,” she finished.

And Winnick isn’t the only Viking getting down and dirty in Season 3 of the hit series. Ludwig, who plays Bjorn, took to Twitter to show just how fierce he can be on the battle field with a photo seemingly taken from the set of the third season.

This is what I have to wear to work.... pic.twitter.com/szDju31o0Z — Alexander Ludwig (@alexanderludwig) July 16, 2014

“This is what I have to wear to work,” he wrote, adding a photo of himself sporting a bloody handprint smeared across his face.







Like mother, like son! We doubt Winnick and Ludwig will be the only ones drenched in blood during Season 3. If we know our Vikings like we think we do, we have a feeling Ragnar, Rollo, Floki and maybe even Athelstan (who has been spotted working out for the third season) will find more than one way to get their hands dirty.

Are you excited for Season 3 of “Vikings”? What are you theories for the new season? Sound off in the comments section below.