James Norton could only join King and Conqueror if his character died

James Norton has revealed that he planned to play William the Conqueror in the upcoming medieval drama series ‘King and Conqueror’, but was thwarted by HBO, who optioned the actor for another series.

Norton, who is also executive producer of the upcoming BBC/CBS show about the iconic Battle of Hastings, was already starring in Joss Whedon’s HBO sci-fi series ‘The Nevers’ when he began developing ‘King and Conqueror’. Under the terms of his HBO contract, he was not allowed to appear in another recurring series, meaning his only option was to play the Anglo-Saxon king Harold, who died on the battlefield in 1066 after being shot in the eye with an arrow .

“HBO said very clearly, ‘You can go and record ‘King and Conquer,’ especially considering you’re an EP and you’re developing it, but you have to die,” Norton revealed during a panel on ‘King and Conqueror’ on British television confab Content London. He explained that the concern was that if the medieval show became a hit and returned for a second season, there would be a conflict.

“That’s what often happens with actor contracts. You can make small, piecemeal miniseries, to a limited extent, but you can’t commit to anything that carries the risk. So my arm was forced,” he added.

Norton said his production partner Kitty Kaletsky, with whom he runs production company Rabbit Track Pictures, suggested his desire to play William stemmed from the fact that the Norman-French aristocrat ultimately won the battle. “That’s probably true,” the actor admitted, though he added that “the cunning, cerebral nature of that character was initially attractive to me.”

“Game of Thrones” star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was ultimately cast as William. King and Conqueror also stars Clémence Poésy, Eddie Marsan, Juliet Stevenson and Luther Ford.

After shooting the series in Iceland earlier this year, Norton said he “can’t imagine it the other way around now.”

“Nikolai is so right about William,” he continued. ‘I think he would say the same thing. I loved the trip I took with Harold. And I think he did that with William too.

Norton added that the shoot had been “dirty and messy – I was covered in mud for six months.”

Kaletsky also addressed why the production team, which also included director Baltasar Kormákur (“Everest”), chose to film one of the most famous moments in British history in Iceland.

“We looked everywhere, we looked at Britain, we looked at various other parts of Europe, and ultimately Iceland, where Baltasar is also from, made sense for us because of the incredible scale it offered us. It could double for Normandy, for other parts of France, for three different parts of England – all of which look very different – ​​for Norway,” the producer said. “And Baltasar’s vision was both profound in terms of the way he wanted to shoot it and had real scale. So it was exciting because it felt like it was never going to be a drone-heavy, pure VFX show. It would have intimacy, but the way Baltasar went about filming those domestic interior scenes was just as meaty as the way he wanted to film the battle scenes – in your face, scary, what it really feels like – instead of just 10,000 men from up there.”