Filming on the latest series of the Netflix blockbuster Valhalla has been delayed by two months.
Scenes were to start being recorded once again this month in Ashford, Wicklow with the cast already chosen.
Members of the public interested in becoming an extra on the series were asked to join the cast last month - with people from all backgrounds being encouraged to apply.
Covid-19 testing on production staff is being carried out at the filming site and all HSE Covid-19 guidelines and protocols are to be followed.
Lockdown
It remains unclear as to why filming has been delayed, but it is understood it is down to the strict lockdown criteria according to sources.
Last year, filming centred around life 100 years after the original series concludes, dramatising the adventures of the most famous Vikings who ever lived.
However, all casting and filming was put on hold in early April as the country and wider world went into lockdown due to Covid-19.
The historical drama series The Vikings Creator Michael Hirst initially developed the latest in Netflix streaming service as a magnet for viewers on the History Channel. Valhalla is the spin-off.
The sequel is set in the eleventh century, so it happens 100 years after the original series.
Just as Vikings helped launch the careers of so many actors and actresses, the Netflix follow-up will similarly do the same.
Sam Corlett stars as Leif Eriksson, a famous Icelander who arrived in North America several hundred years before Christopher Columbus.
Viking leaders
Frida Gustavsson co-headlines as Freydis Eriksdotter, Leif's pagan sister who values the ways of the Old Gods while Leo Suter appears as Harald Sigurdsson, a nobleman who is one of the last Viking berserkers.
Bradley Freegard co-stars as King Canute, the King of Denmark. He's a legendary Viking leader who was crowned in 1017 and Jóhannes Jóhannesson portrays Olaf Haroldson, Harald’s half-brother.
Disney movie
Meanwhile, Covid-19 testing is continuing on some of the cast member’s of Disechanted, the sequel to Walt Disney Studios’ Enchanted which is being filmed in Ireland. The testing is being carried out in the RDS in Dublin.
Work on the musical feature film expected to crank up in the coming months and will continue for several weeks - pandemic allowing.
International film makers Walt Disney Studios sent out two major casting calls for Irish talent, for the planned sequel of Enchanted which they named last month.
A casting call from the Studios in Dublin requested "technically trained dancers" for roles in the sequel was made last month. It is understood hundreds of extras will be involved in the musical with production staff being inundated with applications.
The popular 2007 fantasy film will see Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey return to reprise the roles in the updated sequel, titled Disenchanted.
It is a massive budget production with Disney betting big on the follow-up 14 years after the original.
The casting is being run by a well-known Irish movie, theatre choreographer and set director Belinda Murphy.
