The 6 part series Ragnarok will be produced by Copenhagen-based SAM Productions for the US streaming giant. Filming in Norway and Denmark will start in 2019.

After the political drama Borgen and faith-related Ride Upon the Storm, winner of last year’s Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize - Best Nordic Screenplay, Adam Price will tackle the urgent topic of climate change.  "The series has at its core an issue that not only people in the Nordics, but people all over the world in an increasing degree, are forced to respond to: our climate, which has in recent years undergone considerable changes” said Price.

“The ice caps are melting at a rate no one had anticipated. We go through long periods of drought. The winters are too warm. More and more frequently, we experience extreme cold bursts. In all ways extreme weather conditions. The world is changing, and some might claim that we’re headed towards a new Ragnarok. Unless someone intervenes in time..."

The series written by Price, with Norway’s Simen Alsvik (Lilyhammer, Next Summer) and a Swedish co-writer (yet unnamed), will be a modern coming of age drama rooted in Norse mythology, set in a high school arena. It will unfold in the small fiction town of Edda in the middle of the Norwegian countryside.

Kelly Luegenbiehl, Vice President Originals Europe at Netflix said: “I’m excited to introduce our new Netflix original from Norway and to bring the story of Norse mythology to life in a modern-day context. Adam Price is such a talented storyteller and we look forward to sharing his amazing work with Netflix audiences around the world.”

Ragnarok will be produced by SAM Productions’ Stine Meldgaard Madsen (Pro’s and Con’s, Something’s Rockin’). Meta Louise Foldager, co-founder of SAM with Price, Søren Sveistrup and Studiocanal, will serve as executive producer, alongside Price and Alsvik. The show will be available to Netflix's 130 million subscribers in 190 countries from 2020. 

Ragnarok will be the first fully-commissioned Norwegian-language series for Netflix, but the US streaming service has invested in several Norwegian series in the past, such as Lilyhammer, Acquitted and Norsemen.

Other Netflix commissioned Nordic shows include the Danish youth post-apocalyptic series Rain produced by Miso Film, launched last May. The series starring Alba August, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen among others, was created by Jannik Tai Mosholt, Esben Toft Jacobsen and Christian Potalivo. According to producer Peter Bose, season 2 will wrap shooting mid-December.

Netflix’s first Swedish original series Quicksand (Störst av allt) produced by FLX will be launched in 2019. The crime series based on a novel by Malin Persson Giolito is written by Camilla Ahlgren. Per-Olav Sørensen and Lisa Farzaneh direct. Cast members include Hanna Ardéhn, William Spetz , Felix Sandman, David Dencik and Reuben Sallmander.

Netflix’s ramping up of its foreign language TV shows coincides with the EU’s new 30% European content quota imposed on VOD platforms.

Other upcoming Netflix commissioned European dramas announced yesterday include Spain’s supernatural thriller Alma written by Sergio G. Sánchez (The Orphanage), while the first Polish original series 1983, will be launched globally on November 30, and the second German original series Dogs of Berlin on December 7, 2018.