Vikings will bring even more bloody battles to the History Channel for season 3 as the series works to become grittier than ever.

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The raid of Paris is just around the corner, and series creator Michael Hirst has his cast in fighting shape. Unlike productions such as Thor, wire work and CGI are minimal for Vikings, a decision that puts the battles completely on the backs of the actors.

"The show itself is based on real things and real people and real historical events. But it's also made for real - these guys do things for real," Hirst explained to Yahoo! TV. "These guys, they row and they ride and they fight. They do everything for real."

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The cost of creating these realistic scenes is high, particularly when it comes to training and mishaps (like Gaia Weiss' injured ankle).

"When you're shooting something like this, yes you can rehearse for a few hours, for a few weeks, but when you're on set you don't know what's going to happen," said Katheryn Winnick (Lagertha), according to Yahoo! TV. "You don't know if someone else is going to crash into you or you happen to miss and you get hit. You just have to go with it."

See the actors' hard-won results when Vikings returns to the History Channel in 2015. See a season 3 preview below.

Tags: vikings television history channel