Kristofer Hivju Steps Into His First Romantic Lead Opposite Frida Hallgren in SF Studios' 'True Love'
Kristofer Hivju, best known to global audiences as the warrior Tormund in Game of Thrones, will take on his first true romantic lead in True Love (working title), a Swedish-Croatian romantic comedy from SF Studios directed by Martina Haag. He stars opposite Frida Hallgren in a story about deceit, divorce, and starting over when you're past fifty (Variety).
Hallgren plays Ellinor, a woman dumped by her husband after twenty years of marriage. She then wins €40 million ($46 million) and crosses paths with Henrik, played by Hivju — a man who grew up at Sweden's elite Lundsberg boarding school, where his mother worked as a cleaner. The class-contrast setup gives the rom-com its spark: new money meets old walls, and two people whose lives never should have intersected find each other anyway (Variety).
SF Studios producer Helen Ahlsson noted that Hivju has never really played a romantic lead before. The Norwegian actor has built a career on rugged, often intimidating characters — the kind who swing axes before they sweep anyone off their feet. Stepping into a love story puts a different lens on a performer audiences associate with frozen forests and battle lines (Variety).
For Haag, True Love is a reunion. She teams up again with screenwriter Peter Arrhenius, her collaborator on her directorial debut Little Did I Know. That film won the Best Film Award at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in 2024 and went on to become one of Sweden's biggest box office draws of 2025 — a track record that makes her second feature a project worth watching (Variety).
True Love is currently in pre-production and was pitched on 26 August at Haugesund's Nordic Co-Production Market, the industry showcase in Norway where Scandinavian producers present upcoming projects to potential co-production partners and financiers from across the region (Variety).
The Swedish-Croatian co-production signals SF Studios' continued investment in cross-border European projects, pooling resources and tax incentives from multiple territories — a common structure for Nordic films looking to scale beyond their domestic markets. No release date has been set.
For Hivju, the role marks a genuine pivot. For Haag, it builds on a debut that already outperformed expectations. And for anyone who loves a good comeback story — literal jackpot and all — True Love is shaping up to deliver exactly that.
