When Does The Last Kingdom Season 6 Come Out? Is It Renewed?

What is The Last Kingdom about?

Alexander Dreymon's Uhtred of Bebbanburg is one of television's more interesting protagonists precisely because he is a Saxon raised by Danes, a man who spends five seasons fighting for a kingdom he does not entirely belong to. That divided loyalty is the engine of The Last Kingdom, adapted from Bernard Cornwell's long-running novel series and set during the Viking invasions of ninth-century England. The show follows Uhtred from dispossessed young nobleman to reluctant warrior-kingmaker as Alfred the Great and his successors struggle to unite a fractured land. It is not subtle history, but it takes its history seriously.

The tone lands somewhere between gritty and mythic, with mud-caked battle sequences alongside court intrigue and theological argument. What keeps it from collapsing into generic sword-and-shield spectacle is its consistent interest in religion as a political force. Alfred's Christianity is portrayed as sincere and also ruthlessly convenient, and the tension between the old Norse gods and the new faith gives the show a texture that most Viking-era dramas skip over. The later seasons, which shift focus toward Edward's reign, lose some momentum, and certain characters are kept around past the point where the story needs them. But the core ensemble, particularly Dreymon alongside Mark Rowley as the fiercely loyal Finan, holds things together.

The show began on BBC Two in the UK before Netflix picked it up globally, and it built a devoted audience over the course of its run. Its IMDb rating of 8.5 reflects a fanbase that is passionate, not casual, the kind of viewers who name their pets after the characters. Critical reception was warm but rarely ecstatic, which feels about right. This is a show that rewards patience and tolerates some repetition in its plotting.

If you have already exhausted Vikings and found Game of Thrones too fantastical, The Last Kingdom fills a specific gap. It is lower-budget than both but more narratively coherent than Vikings by its final episodes. The movie that followed the series, Seven Kings Must Die, gave the story a proper conclusion, which is rarer than it should be for a show like this.

Created by Stephen Butchard

Is The Last Kingdom renewed or cancelled?

Why did The Last Kingdom end?

The Last Kingdom ended because it was always moving toward a finish line, not running from one. The show is based on Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories novel series, and by the time season five arrived on Netflix, Uhtred's story had been told across 46 episodes in a way that tracked closely with the books. Creator Stephen Butchard and the production team shaped the series with an endpoint in mind, and season five delivered that conclusion.

The show's journey to that finale was itself a little unusual. It started on BBC Two in 2015, where it ran for two seasons before Netflix picked it up and took it global. That transition actually extended the show's life rather than shortened it, giving it a much larger international audience and the resources to handle the scope Cornwell's material demands. By the time Netflix committed to a fifth and final season, the decision to wrap things up felt like a natural creative choice rather than a budget call or a ratings problem.

The 8.5 on IMDb suggests the audience that found the show largely stayed loyal to it, which made the ending feel like a reward rather than an abandonment. Netflix also greenlit a feature film, Seven Kings Must Die, released in 2023, to tie up remaining loose ends, which is not something a platform does with a property it has lost faith in. This was a show that finished on its own terms.

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The Last Kingdom latest news

• ‘The Last Kingdom’ Will Begin to Leave Netflix Throughout 2026

  NewsAPI:What's on Netflix · 2026-02-15general