Erling Haaland Is the Animated Viking Warrior Hollywood Never Knew It Needed
The worlds of elite football and animated cinema don’t cross paths all that often, but when they do, the results tend to be genuinely fascinating. Erling Haaland, widely regarded as one of the most dominant strikers of his generation, is about to make his film debut, and the role could hardly be more fitting for the Norwegian goal machine.
Haaland plays for Manchester City in the Premier League and has long carried the image of a mythic, almost superhuman figure on the pitch, so it comes as little surprise that his first acting credit would cast him as something equally larger than life. According to an exclusive report from the Hollywood Reporter, the Manchester City striker will voice a Viking warrior in the upcoming animated feature ‘Viqueens,’ marking his debut as a voice actor.
‘Viqueens’ is already one of the more anticipated animated films on the horizon. The CG-animated feature comes from director Harald Zwart, whose credits include ‘The Karate Kid,’ ‘The 12th Man,’ and ‘Agent Cody Banks,’ and marks his first full foray into animation. The film is described as a high-energy adventure-comedy that follows two fearless Viking girls, Ingrid and Hedvig, as they defy tradition to return a stowaway boy to China, with their journey spanning icy fjords, Byzantine intrigue, and the fabled Silk Road.
The voice cast assembled around Haaland is equally eye-catching. Ella Purnell, known for ‘Arcane,’ ‘Fallout,’ and ‘Yellowjackets,’ and Rita Ora, who previously lent her voice to ‘Pokémon: Detective Pikachu’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight,’ lead the ensemble. Additional voices include Steve Speirs as King Erik, Anton Lesser as the scheming brother Lars, and Alan Carr as the Bard, described as a lyrically-challenged royal scribe. The production also carries some serious musical weight, with Emmy and Annie Award-winning composer Christophe Beck, whose scores for ‘Frozen’ and ‘Frozen II’ have reached hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide, providing the original music.
Zwart has spoken candidly about what drew him to the project. In a statement, the director explained that as a Norwegian he had long been urged to make a Viking film, but that the usual dark, violent portrayals never appealed to him, and that the concept of ‘Viqueens’ offered a fresh perspective, imagining a story about how Norway, once feared, is now best known for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize. Casting Haaland, a man who has become arguably Norway’s most globally recognized living figure, feels entirely in step with that spirit of reclaiming the Viking image.
The film is set to premiere in Norwegian cinemas on Christmas Day and is planned to show on over 2,000 screens across the United States, giving it a footprint that extends well beyond the Scandinavian market. With nearly 600 million dollars in global box office across his filmography, Zwart is a proven commercial filmmaker bringing his storytelling instincts to a whole new audience.
For a player who recently purchased a centuries-old edition of Norse chronicles at auction and donated it to his home municipality so local residents could read about historical figures from their area, voice acting in a Viking-themed animated film reads less like a celebrity cameo and more like a genuinely personal project. Whether Haaland’s big-screen debut translates his magnetic on-pitch presence into something equally compelling in a recording booth is the question fans of both football and animation will be eager to see answered when ‘Viqueens’ arrives later this year.
Are you rooting for Haaland to score in the voice acting game the same way he does in the Premier League?
