At the 2024 ChosenCon, The Chosen's Dallas Jenkins talked meeting Mel Gibson and filming Season 5 amidst current controversies.
Since cameras began rolling on the fifth season of the hit historical drama, The Chosen's creator and showrunner met a fellow Biblical storyteller before finishing filming the Last Supper right as the world reacted to the Paris Olympic Games portrayal.
Meanwhile, hostilities in the Middle East between Israel, Hamas, and Lebanon have continued to dominate headlines as The Chosen prepares to spotlight Jerusalem in its Season 5 narrative releasing in 2025.
Dallas Jenkins Discusses Olympics Controversy, Israel, & Gen Z
It's no secret to fans of The Chosen that Season 5 tackles "Holy Week" which consists of Palm Sunday, a certain heartbreaking betrayal, and concludes with the Last Supper.
But early this year, the Bible-based series starring Jonathan Roumie couldn't have predicted the latter Biblical event would become a global topic of discussion when the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony featured a controversial drag queen portrayal of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper painting.
When The Direct asked Dallas Jenkins at the 2024 ChosenCon (aka The Chosen Insiders Conference) when Season 5's Last Supper sequence was filmed and if the Olympic controversy had any impact, the director confirmed "it was filmed about a week before" the opening ceremony before referencing his posting a picture of The Chosen's Last Supper to social media:
"So it was filmed about a week before and we had all of these great pictures. We can't wait to debut this picture because it's so beautiful. Then the Olympics happened and I thought, 'Huh. That's good timing. This is gonna really help.' We honestly weren't doing it as some sort of culture war. We don't care about the culture wars. We just said, 'You know what? Let's make sure you see something closer to the real thing.' So let's put this out there."
In doing so, Jenkins noted, "We're not gonna fight" but rather ask the public, "'What do you think?'"
"We're not gonna fight. We're not going to say anything snarky. We're just gonna go, 'What do you think?' I think the people spoke because it got more engagement than any of our pictures released. But yeah, it was a little bit of a perfect storm - no pun intended - in filming about a week before."
When asked about the October 7 attacks on Israel and if the ongoing political divisiveness has impacted The Chosen, the showrunner explained, "there's really nothing controversial about the fact that we are a Jewish show" and "we care about everybody:"
"Obviously political topics can be divisive. But there's really nothing controversial about the fact that we are a Jewish show. Our show is set in Israel... It's the roots of our faith. We're unabashed about that, we're unashamed about that. So, of course, we stand with, kneel for Israel. Now, of course, there is people involved in this conflict from every side, and we care about everybody. We don't anyone to be victimized by hate or by violence and that needs to be said. Israel doesn't have the monopoly on people who don't deserve this... (noise interference). We are a Jewish show. We stand with them."
Through the years, The Chosen has found a loyal fan base among Millennials and Gen Z audiences.
And, when questioned about what the interest of this demographic means to Jenkins, he admitted, "It's everything" as he "didn't have anything like this" when he was young:
"It's everything. When I was in college, I didn't have anything like this. I was a person of faith. But when you're younger, you're a little bit more eager to see good stuff. How come all the stuff that's from a faith perspective is boring or not worth watching compared to everything else?"
He also revealed that, in ways, The Chosen is for "the college version of me:"
"In many ways, I do 'The Chosen' for the college version of me. It's been really gratifying and always moving to us when younger people have seen it. We have more to come and more people to reach. So we're just getting started."
Dallas Jenkins Talks Meeting Mel Gibson
When asked about meeting Passion of the Christ director Mel Gibson in recent weeks and if they discussed filming the Crucifixion (an event The Chosen is confirmed to cover in Season 6), Dallas confessed, "We just kinda traded stories:"
"We just kinda traded stories a little bit. There was a little bit of a connection of just the pressure that comes with trying to get that right. Both of us have a similar approach. We talked about how with Jim (Caviezel) playing Jesus for him and Jonathan (Roumie) playing for me is in many ways a more scary task because that's how people are going to look at them, broken, flawed people. And Mel and I are broken, flawed people who are tasked with telling this story. So we bonded a little bit on that."
Jenkins also acknowledged that the two filmmakers "do very different things:"
"But we do very different things. What he did is different from mine. We just wanted to congratulate each other on that."
Between the meeting of the two directors and ChosenCon, Mel Gibson was reportedly scouting locations (via Collider) for his long-awaited sequel, The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection.
Filming is expected to begin in early 2025 with Jim Caviezel reprising his role as Jesus.
The Chosen Season 7 will also center on the Resurrection and is set to debut in 2028.
Seasons 1-3 of The Chosen are streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. Seasons 1-4 are available to stream on the show's free app, Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video.
