Britannia (TV series)


Britannia is a historical fantasy drama series. It was created by Jez Butterworth and Tom Butterworth. The series was the first co-production between Sky and Amazon Prime Video and stars Kelly Reilly, David Morrissey, Zoë Wanamaker, Mackenzie Crook, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, and Eleanor Worthington Cox. It first aired on Sky Atlantic in the UK beginning 18 January 2018 and on Amazon Prime Video in the US beginning 26 January 2018.

Synopsis

Set in the year 43, the series follows the Roman conquest of Britain — "a mysterious land ruled by wild warrior women and powerful druids who can channel the powerful forces of the underworld". Celtic rivals Kerra and Antedia must work together to fight off the Roman invasion led by Aulus Plautius.

Cast and characters

Romans

Series overview

Season 1 (2018)

Season 2 (2019)

Production

The first series was produced by Rick McCallum, Vertigo Films and Neal Street Productions and shot on location in Czechia and Wales. Most dialogue in the series is spoken in English, which is used mostly to represent Vulgar Latin spoken by the Romans and Brythonic spoken by the Celts. Latin and Welsh are also used to represent Vulgar Latin and Brythonic, respectively.
In March 2018, it was announced that Sky Atlantic had renewed the show for a second series. Amazon was not involved in production and did not stream the second season.
The show was renewed for a third series in January 2020. In June 2020, U.S. premium network Epix announced it would partner with Sky to produce the third series. It would also air the first series beginning August 2, 2020, and the second series beginning October 4, 2020.

Reception

The first season received positive reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 71% approval rating, with an average rating of 6.57/10 based on 21 reviews, with site's critics consensus saying "Brilliantly bonkers, Britannia's duplicitous characters and campy fantasy won't be for everyone, but those looking for less-serious swords and sorcery may enjoy its spellbinding madness". On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, it scored 64 out of 100, based on five reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The series premiered to over 1 million viewers according to BARB, but the final episode finished with only 159,000 viewers, a drop of around 90%.