“Vikings” season 5 has wrapped up filming, and it’s not just the fans who are excited about the series’ return. The showrunners are just as stoked, and one of them believes that the upcoming season will “blow socks off.”

Spoiler alert: This article contains plot details about “Vikings” season 5. An official announcement has yet to be made regarding the air date of the season premiere. Episodes from the series’ previous seasons are available for Australian viewers to watch on SBS.

“Vikings” executive producer Morgan O’Sullivan recently talked about the hardships of filming the fifth season of the show. O’Sullivan said that the showrunners have raised the bar extensively for the upcoming season, shooting not only in his home country of Ireland, but also in Morocco and Iceland. The entire operation was a logistical nightmare, but it proved to be an amazing experience for the whole crew to film a TV series on a “Braveheart” scale.

Regarding the show’s historical accuracy, O’Sullivan admitted that series creator and writer Michael Hirst makes use of “a certain amount of creative licence.” After all, the show needs to entertain first and inform later. Also, the real Vikings never got to wrote about themselves, so what’s left for everyone to read about is based on Christian perspective.

The History show is often compared to “Game of Thrones,” and O’Sullivan takes it as a compliment. The HBO series returns for its seventh season in mid-July while “Vikings” just wrapped up a year-long filming of its fifth season. And according to O’Sullivan, fans should expect an explosive new set of episodes this year.

“I think when they see season 5, it’ll blow your socks off,” the executive producer told IFTN. “It really is. It’s fabulous.”

The upcoming season isn’t short of intriguing narratives. Fans are looking ahead to see if Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) meets her demise, and who gets to eliminate her. Ragnar’s (Travis Fimmel) sons are also going to be in the spotlight next season as they try to avenge their father’s death.

On the subject of the upcoming season’s release date, O’Sullivan didn’t give out any specifics. The executive producer just reiterated what the showrunners and cast members have been saying when pressed for an air date.

“It’ll be this year, [but] we just don’t know when,” said O’Sullivan about “Vikings” season 5. “It’ll be towards the end of the year, I think. “We haven’t an air date as yet but hopefully we’ll have one pretty soon.”

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