Prime Video Wins the Battle for Historical Epic 'King & Conqueror'

As Anglophiles, we all know the indescribable feeling of a highly anticipated British series finally (finally!) landing a deal to make its way across the pond. To be fair, historical epic King & Conqueror technically hasn't even aired in the U.K. yet (it's set to premiere on BBC One at the end of the month), but this show has been on the radar of history buffs and all-around James Norton (Grantchester) enthusiasts alike since late lst year, so the news that it's landed a U.S. distribution deal at Prime Video comes as a incredibly welcome relief.

The lavish eight-part series aims to depict the story of the men behind one of the great turning points in English history: The Battle of Hastings. The 1066 face-off between Harold Godwinson, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, and Normandy's William the Conqueror, reshaped England in its wake, from its laws to its language. But the lead-up to this event features everything from a complicated succession crisis surrounding Edward the Confessor's throne, an interconnected family dynasty at war with itself, a shipwreck, a Viking invasion, and more. In short, it has all the ingredients for an epic television series.

Norton plays King Harold II alongside Game of Thrones alum Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as William of Normandy, and if the early footage is anything to go by, it appears that the show is as interested in the family history and preexisting relationship between the two men as it is their inexorable march to face one another on opposite sites of a battlefield.