The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die ending explained
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Fans of Netflix’s The Last Kingdom TV series will no doubt have been counting down the days until the movie spinoff – The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die – would be dropped on the streaming platform.
And this weekend (14th April) the movie, that was created to serve as a conclusion to both the series and the story, arrived on Netflix.
After five seasons, the movie picks up directly where season five ended but it doesn’t exactly have a happy ending. Here’s where we will be getting into some serious *spoiler alert* territory.
The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die ending explained
Taking its name from a dream that Finian’s wife has where, "seven kings must die, and the woman you love,” Uhtred (played by Alexander Dreymon) chooses to ignore this, especially since he hasn’t got a woman in his life, nor is he a king.
With Edward's older sons Aethelstan and Aelfweard vying for the throne, Uhtred offers to set up a meeting between the two. But it doesn’t go very well – Aelfweard steps forward to yield to his brother, while Aethelstan chooses this moment to stab his brother to death and take the throne.
Now that he is king of Wessex, East Anglia and Mercia, Aethelstan gets rid of anyone that could get in his way. He hangs some of his former friends, sends Eadifgu to a nunnery, captures Edmund and Osbert and banishes Uhtred to the Shetlands.
Osbert and Edmund are ultimately found safe, while Uhtred and Aethelstan sort out their differences. But Finian’s wife’s prophecy soon starts to come to fruition, as she and the residents of Bebbanburg are found murdered. This leads us to the culminating battle of the movie.
The AD 937 battle of Brunanburgh sees Uhtred, Aethelstan and their men join forces to take on the Norse leader Anlaf and his allies. And as you may imagine, things get pretty grisly out there on the battlefield, with many losing their lives.
Fiery arrows fly, spikes are set out to pierce the shoes of Saxon warriors and swords are drawn.
Uhtred uses a surprise – more men on horseback – to have some of the Scots running, while Ingilmundr and Aethelstan come to blows. Eventually Ingilmundr is captured and meets his end in a rather gruesome way – with a sword to the back of his head.
After being badly wounded, Uhtred falls to his knees but Sihtric and Finian are able to take him back to Bebbanburg in Northumbria.
The five kings fighting Aethelstan flee but we discover that all of their sons have been killed, so there will be no heirs to carry on their family names.
When they get there, Uhtred is well enough to pledge Northumbria to Aethelstan – creating England. He only has one condition: Aethelstan must not marry or produce any heirs, so that Edmund (his half-brother) will ascend to the throne when he dies.
This shouldn’t be too difficult since it appears that Aethelstan is gay.
But things aren’t going so great for Uhtred. We see him looking incredibly weak and pale as he walks to the end of the hall and opens the door. Those behind him see an empty space. While Uhtred, on the other hand, sees a room filled with people laughing and drinking. It’s only upon closer inspection that we realise that these are people from his past who have died, which gives a good indication that he is about to die himself.
The end titles then reveal that the seventh king (Uhtred) has died, while King Aethelstan has united the land. The history books will now paint him as the first and greatest Medieval king of England – ruling until his death in AD 939, when he was succeeded by his brother, Edmund.
However, Alexander Dreymon reveals that there is some “ambiguity" in Uhtred's final moments, when speaking to the Radio Times.
"You see everything that he's fought for his whole life and he's believed in… because the idea of Valhalla and heaven has been such a big character in the show in a way. And that he has the option of going to the feast hall – that he aches for so much – is beautiful to see," he explained.
"It's such a big thing for him to have that choice. To be able to decide: 'Do I stay with the people that I love here or do I stay with the people that I love there?' And ultimately, it's all going to be okay. So, I think the life that he's led is going to be very rewarding for him in the end – so I'm very happy for him."
Watch The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die on Netflix now.
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