‘Vikings: Valhalla’ Star Leo Suter Continues to Give Us What We Want in Season 2: Shirtless Fight Scenes

Vikings: Valhalla returned to Netflix last week, taking our Nordic heroes to such far-flung places as Novgorod, Constantinople, and Jómsborg. There’s mystery and intrigue, battles a-plenty, and even some good old fashioned torture. However, the best part of Vikings: Valhalla Season 2 has got to be the return of one of Season 1’s greatest hits: shirtless Harald Sigurdsson (Leo Suter).

Vikings: Valhalla understands that many of us are specifically tuning in just to respectfully observe the state of actor Leo Suter’s ab routine. The very first time Harald appears in the new season, he takes off his shirt. Sure, it’s so his lover Freydis (Frida Gustavsson) can assess how a gnarly Season 1 injury is progressing along, but the rough-spun tunic came off. It happened. In Vikings: Valhalla Season 2 Episode 2, there’s a whole extended fight sequence where Harald is — you guessed it — shirtless. Netflix even used a shot of a bare-chested Harald as its main key art on the official press site. And if that doesn’t say, “Yeah, we know what you associate this show with and it’s this guy’s pecs,” I don’t know what does!

Vikings: Valhalla is, of course, Netflix’s follow-up to the uber-popular History show Vikings. Set about a century after the original series, Valhalla imagines a scenario when future New World explorers Leif Eriksson (Sam Corlett) and sister Freydis crossed paths with Norwegian hero Harald Sigurdsson and legendary King Canute (Bradley Freegard). Season 2 opens with our beloved trio still dealing with the fallout of the bloody Season 1 finale. A secretly pregnant Freydis decides to break things off with Harald to pursue her destiny as a traditionally pagan Viking leader, while the ambitious Harald journeys to Kyivan Rus to beg help from his “uncle,” Yaroslav the Wise (Marcin Dorociński). There, Harald decides the fastest way to make money is to fight for it.

What follows is a wrestling match on steroids. Harald — once again, shirtless — takes on two equally buff and half-clothed warriors. Naturally, Harald holds his own. So much so that the ref cheats by throwing in another fighter when Harald neutralizes one of his opponents. This forces Leif to jump in to help his friend by…uh…killing one of the fighters, but you know what? Harald thinks the whole situation is great. It ends with folks scattering and Harald covered in the blood of his enemies. Again, shirtless.

Okay, I know it’s silly to harp on and on about one guy’s buff torso, but this world is a fleeting cesspool of nightmares. The characters of Vikings: Valhalla embrace this and the showrunners seem to understand it, too. To wit, we must find small pockets of joy where we can. Me? I like marveling at this one dude’s ab routine. Had I known Leo Suter was hiding this under his austere costume in PBS’s Sanditon, I might have been rooting for his character to carry Charlotte away in Season 1.

Vikings: Valhalla knows what its fans want and it’s simply shirtless Harald Sigurdsson.