– Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Frank Lammers and Oscar Skagerberg are attached to the €3 million Icelandic-Swedish feature, set to shoot in Iceland in summer 2027
l-r: Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Frank Lammers and Oscar Skagerberg
Film Partner Iceland, alongside Swedish firms LittleBig Productions and Filmsnickeriet, has announced the principal cast for The Berserker, a €3 million Viking action-thriller written and directed by Johan Bromander. The film is slated to shoot in Iceland in summer 2027, with a planned theatrical release in 2028.
Billed by the team as Unforgiven meets The Northman, the project is set in England in 1085, at the time of William the Conqueror’s Domesday census. Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson (Game of Thrones, Succession, Vikings) will play Harald Barefoot, a battle-scarred Viking who has withdrawn from the world, and wants only to be left alone with his treasures and the boat he is building for his voyage to Valhalla. Frank Lammers (Undercover, Ferry) is attached as William the Conqueror, whose census sets the story’s deadly chain of events in motion, whilst Oscar Skagerberg (Beck, The Last Kingdom, Hamilton) will play Leif the Handsome, Harald’s oldest companion and a fellow veteran.
The story begins when William orders the creation of the Domesday Book, a census of every soul and possession in his kingdom. The Church is sent to carry out the work, dispatching monks into the furthest reaches of the realm, each accompanied by a local interpreter. Saga, a sharp young Danish thief, has been hired for the task. When she and a monk arrive at the home of Harald Barefoot, he has no intention of being registered by anyone. He humiliates the monk and sends him away – but Saga stays.
The film follows the bond that develops between the two outsiders: one who has spent his life fighting, and one who has spent hers running. As Harald’s refusal to submit to the Crown escalates, and the king’s forces close in, their unlikely kinship deepens. According to the production team, Harald has never run from anything, while Saga discovers she no longer wants to.
“Harald Barefoot is part-William Munney from Unforgiven, part-Conan at the end of Conan the Barbarian – a man of violence who has chosen stillness. His desire to be left alone is rivalled only by his desire to never, ever back down. And never pay any taxes,” said Bromander.
The helmer’s connection to the project is also described as partly personal, with the producers noting that Bromander’s own lineage runs back to the era depicted in the movie and to the type of prominent Vikings he intends to honour on screen.
Producers Anna Guðbjörg Magnúsdóttir and Bonita Drake, of Film Partner Iceland, added: “Some scripts wake up the producer in you the moment you read them. The Berserker is one of those – think a Viking Léon, with all the heart and none of the mercy. We just couldn’t say no to this journey with Johan and Harald.”
The project is being staged by Magnúsdóttir and Drake for Film Partner Iceland, with Mikael J Boson producing for Filmsnickeriet. Anders Granström, of LittleBig Productions, and the UK’s William David Ball serve as executive producers. International sales are being handled by Green Lighting Studio.
The film has also launched audience pre-sales through Greelistu, an Icelandic platform enabling viewers to purchase tickets for a film’s exclusive world premiere ahead of production. The mechanism is being used by the team as a form of real-time market validation, translating audience interest into measurable pre-production data. Tickets are currently available via the pic’s official website.
According to the producers, 40% of the budget is currently in place through the Icelandic tax incentive and producer equity, with a further estimated 20% expected from ongoing audience pre-sales via Greelistu. The team is now seeking distribution advances and territory pre-sales to complete the financing.
