The Last Kingdom, a small-screen adaptation of novelist Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories, is to go into production this fall, BBC America announced.
The first season of the television series will consist of eight, 60-minute episodes.
Set in the year 872 -- when many of the separate kingdoms of what we now know as England have fallen to the invading Vikings -- the great kingdom of Wessex has been left standing alone and defiant under the command of King Alfred the Great, a synopsis said.
"Cornwell's Saxon novels combine historical figures and events with fiction in an utterly compelling way," executive producer Gareth Neame said in a statement. "In the hands of [screenwriter] Stephen Butchard we believe it will make original and engrossing television drama. In part the epic quest of our hero Uhtred, it is also a fascinating re-telling of the tale of King Alfred the Great and how he united the many separate kingdoms on this island into what would become England."
No casting or air dates have been announced yet.