‘We met a lot of people fleeing Ukraine – it’s heartbreaking’: Alexander Dreymon on The Last Kingdom and helping war refugees

In late February 2022, the cast of Netflix’s roaring historical drama, The Last Kingdom,were in icy Budapest. They were filming the final scenes of the franchise’s movie spinoff, Seven Kings Must Die. It was also the month that Putin’s Russian army invaded Ukraine, around 700 miles east of Hungary’s capital. “There are no words for a situation like that,” says Alexander Dreymon, the 40-year-old German star and producer of Seven Kings, as he recounts the influx of refugees that came through the Budapest train station. “You know, a lot of Hungarian families opened their doors to Ukrainians.” He recalls how he and his castmates lent a hand by shuttling Ukrainians to Hungarian homes. “We met a lot of people who had fled Ukraine,” he says, solemnly. “It was very moving. We would go to the train station to see if people needed rides. It’s heartbreaking. And it’s incredible that it’s still going on.”

It’s been more than a year since Dreymon wrapped in Budapest, and we’re speaking in a hotel office next to the Paris Theatre in New York, where a red carpet will soon be rolled out for a special screening of Seven Kings. He greets me with a warm smile, noting that my name is the same as his grandmother’s, “except hers ended with an ‘e’ – short for Ingeborg”. He’s about to sit beside me on a velvet couch, but then remembers he has pictures to pose for later and can’t “wrinkle the suit”. (He opts for a less threatening seat on a wooden coffee table, instead.) His grey-blue eyes are intently focused on me as he speaks; the flowing brown locks that made him such a heartthrob to fans of The Last Kingdom are no more.

Dreymon has led The Last Kingdom as the fictional Uhtred, Lord of Bebbanburg, for eight years now. Across five seasons – adapted from the 13 novels in British author Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Stories – Uhtred’s tragic life, plagued with violence and incomprehensible familial loss, unfolds against the backdrop of ninth-and 10th-century England. Born a Saxon and raised by Danes, who take him in after he witnesses the murder of his father by Vikings, young Uhtred swiftly adapts to Pagan culture. But it’s the devastating demise of his surrogate family, who die in a brutal arson attack years later, that sets the series in motion, as Uhtred seeks to avenge his adoptive father’s death and reclaim his homeland.

Seven Kings picks up immediately after the series’ powerful season five finale, which saw Uhtred’s successful recovery of his ancestral birthright of Bebbanburg. Returning to the sprawling greenery of provincial Northumberland (which the Hungarian countryside is a stand-in for), the film seamlessly links Uhtred’s fictional storyline with historical figure Athelstan (played by Harry Gilby) and his bloody conquest to become the first medieval king of England.

“The plan was always to do five seasons,” says Dreymon, although he does call the end of the franchise “bittersweet”. “It’s been such a wonderful opportunity to play this character for so long because he goes through every imaginable human emotion. It’s been such a wonderful playground to explore that.”

The show’s first two seasons aired on BBC Two, before Netflix acquired it for its final three, growing its global audience exponentially, with dedicated fans flocking to England’s Bebbanburg Castle just to capture a piece of history. The Last Kingdom has been likened to current Norse mythology series Vikings: Valhalla and HBO’s behemoth success Game of Thrones. But unlike the latter, which is infused with fantastical elements of dragons roaming the sky and ice zombies battling humans, The Last Kingdom is firmly rooted in reality. Dreymon is not afraid, though, to give credit to the fantasy juggernaut, acknowledging that “Game of Thrones opened the door for shows like ours”.

Dreymon was born in Mainz, a small city in western Germany, and was raised by his mother, who was a language and history teacher. As a child, he spent his time between the south of France, Switzerland and South Dakota, where much of his extended family were based. He’s unclear on the details, only offering small tidbits. “The beginning of the moves were always tough,” he admits, citing that the constant changing of schools and learning new languages “make you feel alone for a bit”. But he quickly shifts to a more positive note. “Ultimately, it was the best thing to happen to me,” he says. “Getting to experience new cultures and ways of living, it just adds so much to your life.”

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It wasn’t until he graduated high school that he began acting. “The more I did it, the more I got hooked. I was obsessed,” he remembers. Eventually, he found himself in Paris, stage acting, before he felt he needed “in-depth classical training” and chose to attend London’s Drama Centre.

Nearly 10 years later, Dreymon landed his first major on-screen role in 2013 as the well-mannered, naive neighbourhood new boy Luke Ramsey in the fan-favourite third season of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story. The following year, he secured his breakout role as Lord Uhtred. Alongside shooting The Last Kingdom, Dreymon starred in indie movies, such as the 2020 Swedish thriller Horizon Line, opposite Allison Williams (Girls), now his fiancee.

As I attempt to broach the pair’s relationship, Dreymon’s publicist steps in to ask that I avoid personal questions. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that they’ve spoken very little about each other publicly. The couple reportedly welcomed their son Arlo in December 2021, one year before Dreymon announced their engagement on Instagram. He wrote “I’m so proud of my gorgeous fiancee” alongside photos of their first red carpet outing as a couple, at the December premiere of Williams’s recent cult horror film M3GAN.

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Dreymon is secretive about what he’s got coming up next, although something is in the works. “I would love to mix it up but, first of all, it has to be something contemporary where it doesn’t take three people to open your costume if you need to go pee,” he says, laughing. “I feel ready for anything.”

‘The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die’ premieres on Netflix on 14 April