The Last Viking is now available to rent on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video in the US, over a month after its May 29 VOD debut. Mads Mikkelsen plays Manfred, a man convinced he’s John Lennon, in his sixth film with director Anders Thomas Jensen and co-star Nikolaj Lie Kaas, following Riders of Justice. Jensen calls the performance unlike anything Mikkelsen has done before.
Manfred thinks he’s John Lennon, and Mads Mikkelsen plays him with a curly wig and none of the icy elegance that made him famous. The Last Viking has quietly settled onto Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video since late May, racking up a 92% critics score while barely making noise beyond die-hard fans of Danish cinema. It’s the sixth time Mikkelsen has teamed up with Nikolaj Lie Kaas under director Anders Thomas Jensen, and something about that long history lets the two actors dig into a sibling relationship that’s equal parts brutal and tender. Critics keep circling back to one idea: this is a version of Mikkelsen nobody has seen before, and apparently that was entirely his own doing.
A surreal blend of black comedy and Viking legacy
Since May 29, 2026, American viewers have been able to discover one of the strangest Danish films in recent memory. The Last Viking, written and directed by Anders Thomas Jensen, landed in limited theaters and on VOD simultaneously via Samuel Goldwyn Films. The premise is deliberately absurd: Mads Mikkelsen plays Manfred, a man convinced he is John Lennon, while Nikolaj Lie Kaas portrays his skeptical brother Anker. The black comedy weaves cartoonish violence and family drama into a single, offbeat story.
A transformation Mikkelsen asked for
Variety described Manfred as a drastically against-type performance, and Jensen told the Hollywood Reporter it is an identity unlike anything the actor has done before. The curly-haired, unglamorous look was Mikkelsen’s own idea. “It actually comes from him. Everybody thinks about Mads as this iconically beautiful man, so a part of him wants to be ugly,” Jensen said.
A trio with 6 films behind it
The Last Viking marks the sixth collaboration between Jensen, Mikkelsen and Kaas, after Riders of Justice, Adam’s Apples, Flickering Lights, The Green Butchers and Men & Chicken. That shared history shows on screen, according to IndieWire’s Christian Zilko: “After co-starring in six of Jensen’s films together, Kaas and Mikkelsen rely on their hard-earned chemistry to explore all of the small cracks in the relationship.” The supporting cast includes Sofie Gråbøl, Søren Malling and Nicolas Bro.
Strong reviews and where to watch
Critical reception has been warm. The film holds 92% on Rotten Tomatoes from 48 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The consensus praises how the movie leverages the two leads’ finely tuned chemistry to anchor its offbeat humor. In the US, it is available to rent or buy on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video, rather than through a subscription service.
A record run back home
Before crossing the Atlantic, the film premiered out of competition at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on August 30, 2025, then opened in Danish theaters on October 9, 2025. It went on to become Jensen’s best-selling film in his home country, drawing more than 700,000 admissions on a production budget of roughly $8.5 million. US audiences now have that record-breaking film a click away.