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Still from Underworld: Evolution (2006)
Character · by Callan Brooks

Viktor in Underworld: Actor, Daughter and Death

Viktor in Underworld is the ancient vampire elder played by Bill Nighy, who appears in Underworld (2003), Underworld: Evolution and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, and who dies when Selene kills him in the first film. He is the father of Sonja, the daughter he put to death for loving the Lycan Lucian, and the man behind the murder of Selene's family.

Image: TMDB

Who Plays Viktor?

Who Is Viktor in Underworld?

Viktor is a vampire elder, the hard and unforgiving ruler of the coven that fights the Lycans (werewolves) across the Underworld saga, and he is played by Bill Nighy. The credits list him as Viktor and nothing more, so there is no official last name to report. Nighy is billed fifth in Underworld (2003), directed by Len Wiseman, sixth in Underworld: Evolution (2006), and second in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009), directed by Patrick Tatopoulos.

He is already an elder in 1202, the year Evolution opens. There Viktor stands with the other elders Marcus and Amelia as they raid a werewolf village and take William, the first werewolf, prisoner. Viktor then hides William in a secret place.

Rise of the Lycans fills in his rule centuries before the first film. He has built a stronghold to guard his kind against the feral werewolves roaming the land, and he keeps Lycans in service inside its walls. His daughter is Sonja, and the Lycan he raised as a servant is Lucian. For the wider cast, see the underworld characters page.

How old is he? No film gives Viktor a birth year or an age. The only marker is that he is an established elder by 1202, centuries before the present day stories begin.

Viktor Films

Viktor's Story Arc Across Three FilmsSpoilers

Viktor's arc is a loop, because the prequel was released third but sits first in the timeline: he governs and breaks a Lycan revolt in Rise of the Lycans, goes under, and is woken only to die in Underworld (2003). If you want story order, the underworld movies in order page lays out where each film sits.

In underworld rise of the lycans, directed by Patrick Tatopoulos, Viktor holds a fortress meant to shield vampires from the feral werewolves outside. Inside it he raises Lucian, the first Lycan able to pass as human, and uses him as a laborer. Lucian and Viktor's daughter Sonja begin a secret affair. As Lucian starts rallying other Lycans toward freedom, Viktor reads it as a challenge to his rule. Once the affair is exposed, Lucian escapes, Sonja is punished, and Lucian turns the free werewolves into an army that attacks the fortress. Viktor executes the pregnant Sonja himself. Lucian then fights him and seems to finish him, but Viktor survives in hibernation, and the closing scenes feed into the start of the 2003 film.

In underworld 2003, the war is generations old. Selene, a Death Dealer, defies the coven's rules to rouse Viktor early with a warning about Kraven, and he waves it off. He kills the Lycan scientist Singe, who has just explained that Michael Corvin descends from a common ancestor of both races, then leads the raid on the Lycan lair. Kraven kills Lucian, and Viktor admits he murdered Selene's family. Selene turns on him and kills him.

In underworld evolution, he is present only in the 1202 flashback, as the elder who locked William away. His death still echoes: underworld blood wars opens with the vampires seeking revenge for it.

Viktor's Relationships: Sonja, Lucian, Selene and Marcus

Viktor's closest relationships are all damaged by his own decisions, and the central one is with his daughter Sonja, played by Rhona Mitra in Rise of the Lycans. She falls in love with Lucian, which the coven forbids, and Viktor responds by putting her to death while she is carrying a child. In Underworld (2003), Michael Corvin learns that Viktor once killed his own daughter after she fell in love with Lucian. So, the answer to the common search about the Viktor Underworld daughter is Sonja, and her death pushes the war to its bloody finish. See sonja underworld for her own profile.

Lucian underworld is the mirror image. Michael Sheen plays him in all three films that matter here, and Viktor raised him. Their relationship moves from master and servant to open enemies, and it never settles cleanly, since Lucian only appears to kill Viktor in the prequel.

Selene is the person Viktor betrays the most. He is her coven's lord, and she trusts him enough to wake him early, but he lies to her for years about her family. Selene underworld becomes the one who ends his rule. Kraven, played by Shane Brolly, is the vampire leading the coven in the elders' absence, and Viktor does not take Selene's warnings about him seriously.

Marcus is a fellow elder who shares the raid on the werewolf village in 1202. He wakes as a hybrid at the end of the first film, after Viktor is dead. The marcus underworld page covers him, and the corvinus bloodline page covers the Corvinus family, including Marcus, William and their father Alexander Corvinus, the first immortal.

How Does Viktor Die in Underworld?Spoilers

Viktor dies at Selene's hands in Underworld (2003), after she learns that he killed her family and lied to her for years. That is the direct answer to who killed Viktor in Underworld. Selene turns on him in the climax, and Kraven has already killed Lucian by then, which leaves the Lycans without a leader.

There is a wrinkle to keep straight. The prequel, Rise of the Lycans, shows Lucian fighting Viktor and appearing to kill him, but Viktor is only sealed away in a long sleep. So Lucian does not kill him, and the ending of that film links straight into the opening of the 2003 film. When Selene wakes Viktor early, she is ending a hibernation that began with the Lycan uprising.

Selene and Michael then flee as outcasts from both worlds, and the film closes with Marcus awakening as a hybrid, which sets up Evolution.

The consequences keep running. In the setup of Blood Wars, the vampires still want revenge for Viktor's death. For a view of how his death fits the larger story, the underworld timeline page runs through each film in order.

Best Viktor Moments in the Films

In my opinion, Viktor's best moments are the ones where the films let him be quietly frightening instead of loud, and Bill Nighy is the reason it works.

The first is the waking scene in Underworld (2003). Selene breaks the coven's rules to wake him early, and his dismissal of her warning about Kraven is the moment the audience understands that the real danger in the coven is its ruler. He treats a loyal Death Dealer as an inconvenience.

The second is his admission that he murdered Selene's family. Selene's turn against him lands harder because the film has spent so long showing her devotion.

The third is the sequence in Rise of the Lycans where he puts Sonja to death. It is the cruelest thing he does, and it is the film's real turning point, since it pushes the fight to a bloody finish. As a piece of villain writing, I think it gives Viktor a reason that feels like a ruler's logic, not just cruelty.

The 1202 raid in Evolution deserves a mention too, because it shows him locking William away in a secret place before the main story begins. It makes the elders feel like people who made decisions, not just monsters.

On raw strength, as opinion: Viktor is the series' great vampire lord, but Selene beats him in the first film, so I would not put him above Marcus or the hybrid Michael Corvin at his peak. For how the films themselves stack up, see underworld movies ranked.

Facts

FAQs

Who killed Viktor in Underworld?

Selene kills Viktor in Underworld (2003) after learning that he murdered her family and lied to her for years. In Rise of the Lycans, Lucian appears to kill him, but Viktor is only sealed away in a long sleep.

Who plays Viktor in Underworld?

Bill Nighy plays Viktor in Underworld (2003), Underworld: Evolution and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. He is billed fifth, sixth and second in those films.

Was Viktor stronger than Michael?

The films never show Viktor and Michael Corvin fighting, so there is no direct answer. As opinion, Viktor is the stronger of the two while Michael is still a newly bitten human in Underworld (2003), but Michael ends Evolution as a powerful hybrid who kills William, which makes the later Michael the harder one to rank.

Why was Viktor so strong in Underworld?

The films present Viktor as an established elder who was already ruling and raiding with Marcus and Amelia in 1202, and they do not give a formal explanation or power scale. What they show is that he rules a stronghold in Rise of the Lycans, survives Lucian's attack by being sealed in a long sleep, and needs Selene to wake him in Underworld (2003).

How did Viktor become a vampire?

None of the five Underworld films shows Viktor being turned. They introduce him as an elder alongside Marcus and Amelia in 1202. Evolution traces Marcus and William to Alexander Corvinus, the first immortal, but it does not say that Viktor is part of that family.

Who is more powerful, Viktor or Marcus?

Viktor and Marcus never fight, so the films give no official answer. Marcus awakens as a hybrid at the end of Underworld (2003), after Viktor is dead, and in Evolution he kills Kraven and his men and fatally wounds his own father. As opinion, that run of kills makes Marcus the bigger threat, though Viktor is the one with the authority over the coven.