It’s been exactly two years since the Germanic barbarians were up to mischief in the Netflix series of the same name. The overpowering legions of Rome were defeated in the historic Varus Battle, but of course the war is far from over for the underdogs. The all-powerful Roman Empire swears revenge and sends new forces to Germania. The eagerly awaited second season of “Barbarians” will be released on the Netflix streaming service on October 21.
After the victorious Battle of Varus, the Germanic tribes enjoy a year of peace and healing, but of course Rome does not let the shame of defeat sit on itself. New legions are sent to Germania. Arminius (Laurence Rupp, 35) and Thusnelda (Jeanne Goursaud, 26) want to unite the Germanic tribes for the upcoming battles – but can they really count on the Marcomannic prince Marbod (Murathan Muslu, 40), who has 70,000 men under arms ?
Meanwhile, Arminius has to deal with his Roman brother Flavus (Daniel Donskoy), who is still in the service of Rome. Flavus wants his personal revenge on Arminius, who he sees as a traitor to Rome. After the big battle of season one, Folkwin (David Schutter, 31) has become estranged from his former friends Arminius and Thusnelda. In the new episodes he challenges the gods in a sinister way.
A first, shorter teaser trailer for the second season was released in June. Netflix then released the approximately two-minute official trailer at the end of August. The new actors Donskoy and Muslu can be seen in the video, which also reveals a lot about the plot of the upcoming season.
The “Barbarian” stars Rupp, Goursaud and Schutter return from season one, as does Ronald Zehrfeld (“Babylon Berlin”, 45), who in turn embodies the character Berulf. In addition to the already mentioned Donskoy and Muslu, Alessandro Fella (34) and Giovanni Carta are new as Roman Germanicus and Tiberius. Cynthia Micas (32) plays the character Dido.
The premiere of “Barbarians” in 2020 was a great success for the Netflix streaming service, as the historical action series became the most successful Netflix original from Germany and caused a sensation internationally. According to the What’s on Netflix website, the series made the streaming service’s top 10 list in every country where Netflix is available.
Behind the scenes of the series, the staff changed for season two. The Austrian filmmaker Stefan Ruzowitzky (“The Counterfeiters”, 60) took over as showrunner from Jan Martin Scharf (48) and Arne Nolting (49), who were responsible for season one. Ruzowitzky also directed four of the six episodes. Lennart Ruff (“Wild Republic”, 36) took over the staging of the other two episodes from the second “Barbarians” season.
Not to forget, the Roman characters will speak Latin again in season two – as they did in the series premiere.
