The BBC has unveiled the cast for 'The Last Kingdom', which has been shared online by The Hollywood Reporter. The series has begun filming in Budapest, and joining Joseph will be Matthew Macfadyen, who last worked with Joseph for the BBC in Enid. Banished co-star David Dawson is also in the cast. Read the article in full on THR.

BBC America, BBC and Carnival Films, the NBCUniversal-owned production house behind Downton Abbey, have unveiled the lineup for The Last Kingdom, their upcoming Viking TV drama. Based on Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling series of novels, The Saxon Stories, the TV show has now started filming, with production in Hungary and the U.K.

Rutger Hauer joins a cast headed by American Horror Story star Alexander Dreymon and also featuring Ripper Street’s David Dawson. Other castmembers include Emily Cox (Circle of Life), Matthew Macfadyen (Anna Karenina), Ian Hart (Boardwalk Empire, The Bridge), Tobias Santelmann (Kon-Tiki), Thomas W. Gabrielsson (A Royal Affair), Peter Gantzler, Joseph Millson (Penny Dreadful, 24:Live Another Day), Alexandre Willaume, Rune Temte and Henning Valin Jakobsen (The Bridge, The Killing). Read more 'Downton Abbey' to Return for Sixth Season Set in the 9th century, when much of what is now called England is under the rule of the Vikings, The Last Kingdom focuses on the Kingdom of Wessex, the only remaining outpost holding out against the foreign invaders.

Dawson will play King Alfred the Great, while Dreymoon plays the main protagonist Uhtred, the son of a Saxon nobleman who is orphaned by the Vikings and brought up as one of their own and forced to choose his path.

BAFTA-nominated writer Stephen Butchard has adapted the books, which have drawn comparisons with Game of Thrones, into eight 60-minute episodes.