Which show was this?
I gave up on Netflix’s Richard Cornwell’s “The Last Kingdom” series Season 5 Episode 1. Didn’t finish watching it. They introduced a Bishop character who was a black Anglo-Saxon, Briton or something. Totally out of place for 8th century Britain! I won’t be watching any more of the series! I agree with you, one watches a historical drama (yes they are fictional!) like that to get a feel for the times. Poor casting like that just destroys the whole connection that I thought such shows were trying to create.
If they’re so desperate for black actors to have parts do some stories\historical dramas where it makes sense!
Imagine if they had done “Roots” with white or Asians playing the African slaves. What insanity.
Game of Thrones had a multiracial cast that worked. The residents of Westeros where all white people, except Dorne, where they cast Latinos. This made sense if you looked at a Euro-fied version of George R.R. Martin's map where Dorne filled in for Spain. Swarthy actors were used for Dothrakis, you'd find black actors in the city of Qarth, and various racially-ambiguous actors were cast as the Unsullied. It didn't look forced or require a suspension of disbelief.
Vikings: Valhalla.
It's a sequel to the top hit Vikings (that did not feature a multi-racial cast) and takes place 100 years after the original.
The woman in the photo is the character of Jarl Estrid Haakon who rules over the fictional Viking city of Kattegat and is based on the actual historical character of Haakon Ericsson, a white male who served as the Governor of Norway under Canute the Great from 1012 to 1015.