Newsbites: The Chosen! Light of the World! The Resurrection of the Christ!
The Chosen announces new theatrical and streaming dates; Light of the World gets a music video; and Mel Gibson is already prepping The Resurrection of the Christ in Italy.
The Chosen announces Season 6 & 7 theatrical release dates
Looks like fans of The Chosen might have to wait a bit longer than usual for the show’s next season.
With Season 5 due to arrive on Prime Video over the next few weeks, the producers announced yesterday that the Season 6 finale will be coming to theatres on March 12, 2027—almost two years after Season 5 made its theatrical debut.
The producers also announced that the Season 7 premiere will arrive in theatres on March 31, 2028, basically one year after the Season 6 finale comes out.
The press release announcing these dates also stated that Season 6 will stream on Prime Video before the season finale comes to theatres, while Season 7 will stream on Prime Video after the season premiere arrives in theatres.
So it appears that Seasons 6 and 7 will not get full theatrical releases like Seasons 4 and 5, but instead will get a hybrid theatrical-and-streaming release closer to Season 3, which sent its first two episodes and its last two episodes to theatres while the episodes in-between went straight to streaming.
There is no word yet as to when, exactly, the rest of Season 6 will start streaming, but if we assume it’s coming out close to the theatrical finale, then it too would be coming out nearly two years after Season 5—which would be the longest gap between seasons in the show’s history. (The longest gaps so far were about 16 months.)1
A few other quick notes and thoughts about this announcement:
The Season 6 finale will depict the crucifixion of Jesus, and the Season 7 premiere will depict his resurrection.
Both films are coming out 16 days before Easter on the western (i.e. Catholic or Protestant) calendar. The Season 6 finale will be coming out 51 days before Pascha on the eastern (i.e. Orthodox) calendar, but the Season 7 premiere will be coming out in one of those special years when western and eastern churches celebrate the Resurrection at the same time.
The press release announcing these dates says the Season 6 finale and the Season 7 premiere “are being produced as standalone films designed for the big screen experience.” This makes me wonder if they will be multi-episode packages, like previous theatrical releases, or single episodes that happen to be feature-length (The Chosen already has two episodes that run to 80 minutes or more).2
As part of The Chosen’s deal with Amazon (which includes Prime Video), the two theatrical releases will be distributed by Amazon MGM Studios and not by Fathom, which handled all of The Chosen’s previous theatrical releases.
It’s striking how these release dates were announced years in advance, instead of the mere months (or even days!) that previous release dates got.
I cannot help but think that The Chosen is planting its flag on these dates so far in advance partly because there are a lot of Jesus movies in the works right now, so much so that they’ve started to overlap and maybe even conflict with each other; witness how the last instalment of The Chosen: Last Supper came out on the same day as The King of Kings and just a few weeks after another film called The Last Supper. Those other films picked their release dates at a time when The Chosen’s release plans were still pretty vague, but at least now, films like The Resurrection of the Christ will be able to plan their releases around what The Chosen is doing…
One thing that isn’t clear to me from the press release is whether Seasons 6 and 7 will be getting truly global releases—with every country getting every episode simultaneously, in whatever format—or whether Amazon will stagger the release of these seasons across different countries, the way it is currently handling Season 5 (to which they only had streaming rights, not theatrical rights).
And on that note…
The Chosen Season 5 gets international Prime Video streaming dates
We already knew that The Chosen: Last Supper aka The Chosen: Season 5 will be coming to Prime Video in the US in June. Now we have release dates for the show’s Prime Video release in Canada and a number of other countries, too.
Like the American theatrical and Prime Video releases, the Prime Video release in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sub-Saharan Africa, the UK, and Latin America will take place over the course of three weeks—this time in July:
Episodes 1-2 — theatrical: March 27 — US: June 15 — Canada, etc.: July 13
Episodes 3-5 — theatrical: April 3 — US: June 22 — Canada, etc.: July 20
Episodes 6-8 — theatrical: April 10 — US: June 29 — Canada, etc.: July 27
Eventually the season will be released for free around the world via The Chosen’s app. There is still no firm date for that yet, but in a livestream in April, Jenkins said Season 5 will “probably” appear on the app “sometime in September”.
In the meantime, The Chosen’s YouTube channel has released a new clip from Season 5, in which John explains a bit of Greek mythology to Mary Magdalene and comments on the signals Jesus was sending with his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (which takes place in the season’s first episode). You can watch that clip above.
Previous videos (and/or comments on videos) for The Chosen: Last Supper:
The Last Supper sneak peek (commentary only, no video; November 9, 2024)
The teaser (November 28, 2024)
The ‘Confrontation over Jesus’ and ‘Jesus Wants Judas’ Heart’ clips (December 11, 2024)
The ‘An Unexpected Wedding Guest’ clip (December 31, 2024)
The livestream announcing the show’s release schedule (February 17, 2025)
The trailer (February 21, 2025)
The world-premiere livestream, with Kafni clip (March 26, 2025)
The Prime Video trailer (May 8, 2025)
Dallas Jenkins teases a link between upcoming Joseph, Moses series
One last The Chosen-related note: Relevant magazine has a new article on “the Christian film boom” that quotes series creator Dallas Jenkins regarding the two Old Testament shows that he’ll be producing in the next few years:
“Doing Joseph and then Moses is the perfect structure,” he said. “Moses is the response to the Joseph story.”
I’m curious as to what he means by that.
Obviously, the story of Joseph explains how the Israelites got into Egypt while the story of Moses explains how they got out again. But the connections run deeper than that: It has been pointed out that Joseph, as second-in-command to the Pharaoh, basically enslaved the Egyptians in exchange for food during the seven years of famine (Genesis 47:18-21), which arguably set a dangerous precedent that allowed (and maybe even encouraged) later Pharaohs to enslave Joseph’s people.
Will The Chosen’s spin-offs get into this at all? ’Twould be interesting if they did, but I have no idea if this is one of those things that would bring out The Chosen’s more subversive side or be ignored for the sake of a happier, more heroic ending.
Incidentally: Jenkins has said in the past that the Joseph series will come out before The Chosen Season 7. So, given the release dates that were announced yesterday, that would mean the Joseph series is coming out before March 2028. Jenkins will direct the Moses series himself after he has finished The Chosen.
Light of the World gets a new music video
Christian worship band Shane & Shane has released a new song to promote Light of the World, the animated Jesus movie coming to theatres September 5. You can watch the music video, which has some clips from the film, above.
In related news, The Christian Post has a new interview with the film’s producer Brennan McPherson and co-director John J. Schafer. In the excerpt below, they talk about their decision to animate the film by hand rather than with computers, and about their decision to tell the story from the perspective of the apostle John:
“John was the only apostle present at the crucifixion, and he was likely the youngest,” McPherson told The Christian Post during a sit-down conversation at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. “That gave us a natural way to present the story through a relatable teenage perspective without compromising historical plausibility.”
Rather than following the trend of CGI animation, the team behind "Light of the World" chose traditional 2D hand-drawn animation, a choice they said was deliberate for both artistic and symbolic reasons.
The visual style, Schafer noted, was designed to appeal across generations, particularly for families looking for content that’s both visually engaging and spiritually grounded.
“We wanted it to feel timeless, like the Disney films of the ’90s,” said Schafer. “But we also liked that hand-drawn animation has imperfections. It reflects humanity, and that ties into the broader message of the Gospel.”
Previous videos for Light of the World:
The ‘The Heart of Light of the World’ video (October 26, 2024)
The teaser (November 12, 2024)
The clip of Mary talking to John about Jesus’ birth (December 20, 2024)
The children’s-ministry curriculum video (February 10, 2025)
The ‘What Is Truth?’ clip and the ‘Launch Team Introduction’ video (March 26, 2025)
The trailer (April 10, 2025)
The ‘Jesus Heals Mary Magdalene’ clip (May 21, 2025)
More information about Light of the World is available at LightoftheWorld.com.
Mel Gibson already prepping The Resurrection of the Christ in Italy
Variety reports that Mel Gibson is already prepping The Resurrection of the Christ in Italy, and that he met with Italian minister of culture Alessandro Giuli in Matera, the town where he filmed The Passion of the Christ over 20 years ago:
Giuli, a member of Italy’s right-wing government, on Thursday told Italian reporters that he met with Gibson, who is one of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “special ambassadors” to Hollywood, for “a nice souvenir photo with a handshake,” plus an exchange of pleasantries, “in an effort to encourage major Italian and international productions to continue to work in this prime location for world cinema that is Matera,” the minister added.
The article doesn’t mention it, but one cannot help but wonder if Giuli’s meeting with Gibson was motivated at all by Trump’s recent comments about imposing tariffs on “any and all Movies . . . that are produced in Foreign Lands”.
The Variety story also notes that Gibson has been checking out other locations in Italy:
Gibson has also been spotted scouting other ancient Southern Italian rural locations, including Ginosa, known for its churches that are carved into the rock, Gravina Laterza, and Altamura.
Another story in Variety, about the revitalized Cinecittà Studios in Rome, confirms recent reports that Gibson will be shooting part of The Resurrection of the Christ there in August, and it says he will be working on a “sprawling” brand new soundstage called Studio 22, “which is more than 38,000 square feet”.
Upcoming Bible movies and TV shows:
June 8, 2025 — Testament (streaming: Angel Studios)
June 15, 2025 — The Chosen: Last Supper (streaming: Prime Video - US only)
July 13, 2025 — The Chosen: Last Supper (streaming: Prime Video - international)
September 5, 2025 — Light of the World (theatrical: Salvation Poem Project)
December 19, 2025 — Zero A.D. (theatrical: Angel Studios)
2025 (no month specified) — The Carpenter’s Son (theatrical: Magnolia)
2025 (no month specified) — The Chosen Adventures (streaming)
2025 (no month specified) — The Promised Land season 1 (streaming)
2025 (no month specified) — R&B (streaming: Netflix)
Spring 2026 — The Faithful (television: Fox)
March 12, 2027 — The Chosen: Season 6 finale (theatrical: Amazon MGM)
March 31, 2028 — The Chosen: Season 7 premiere (theatrical: Amazon MGM)
no release date specified — David (theatrical)
no release date specified — House of David: Season 2 (streaming: Prime Video)
no release date specified — Jacob (theatrical: Angel Studios)
no release date specified — Judas’ Gospel (theatrical…?)
no release date specified — The Resurrection of the Christ (theatrical: Lionsgate)
who knows when Malick will finish it — The Way of the Wind (theatrical)
Season 1 ended in December 2019 + Season 2 began in April 2021 = 16 months.
Season 2 ended in July 2021 + Season 3 began in November 2022 = 16 months.
Season 3 ended in February 2023 + Season 4 began in February 2024 = 12 months.
Season 4 ended in February 2024 + Season 5 began in March 2025 = 13 months.
The longest episode on the streaming apps is S3E8, which clocks in at 99 minutes—but the last 20 minutes or so consist of bloopers and crowd-funding credits, so the episode proper is only about 80 minutes. S4E2, which doesn’t have those things, is also 80 minutes.