Newsbites: The Chosen universe! Scorsese! Ruth & Boaz! The Promised Land! The King of Kings!
The Chosen's animated series is coming to Prime Video in October. Also: Martin Scorsese plays someone named Isaiah (again!), and Netflix's modernized version of the book of Ruth now has a trailer.
Animated series The Chosen Adventures is coming to Prime Video, and all the other things Dallas Jenkins announced in today’s livestream
Nearly one year after Dallas Jenkins revealed that he and his collaborators were going to create a whole “universe” of shows based on The Chosen, Jenkins hosted a livestream today in which he shared the first release date for one of those projects, as well as some new clips and behind-the-scenes videos from the expanded franchise.
He also shared a clip from Season 6 of The Chosen, which still has about a week of shooting to go but won’t be released for another year or so.
You can watch the livestream for yourself further below, but here’s a quick rundown of all the topics that were covered, in the order that Jenkins covered them:
The Chosen: Season 6
Jenkins shared a behind-the-scenes clip.
This animated series is coming to Prime Video October 17.
Jenkins shared a clip in which the main characters, a couple of kids from Capernaum named Abigail and Joshua, meet Jesus for the first time, just like they did in Season 1 of The Chosen… except this time they’re accompanied by a talking sheep and a talking pigeon.
The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls
This “reality TV” series is coming to Prime Video next year, probably “around the spring”. Jenkins showed a clip featuring Elizabeth Tabish, the actress who plays Mary Magdalene.
ChosenCon
The next fan convention will happen February 19-21, 2026.
Jenkins shared a behind-the-scenes clip from this miniseries, which recently started filming and is being co-produced by Prime Video.
Jenkins shared a clip from this animated film, which Slingshot Productions has been working on for at least the past four years, and which Jenkins’ studio partnered on to help find a distributor for it earlier this month.
Jenkins did not mention that David already has a prequel series—Young David, currently streaming on the Angel and Minno platforms—and he did not address the fact that David was originally backed by Angel Studios or that Slingshot filed a lawsuit to terminate its deal with Angel last March.
At one point, Angel was going to distribute this film in November 2025, but it doesn’t have a release date now. The Slingshot website still says it’s coming in 2025, but the movie’s website now says it’s coming in 2026.
The Chosen: Season 6
Jenkins shared a rough cut of a scene from this season, which will probably be edited out of the livestream within the next few days.
Jenkins reiterated that the first six episodes of this season will start streaming in the second half of 2026, “probably [in the] early fall”.
Jenkins said the Season 6 finale—which will be released theatrically in March 2027—is going to be much, much bigger than any previous episode: “This is not just the story of the crucifixion, this is the story of humanity. And one of the things that we do in this movie is portray not only the crucifixion itself, but the need for the crucifixion—the history of humanity that shows why the crucifixion took place, and what the crucifixion was in response to.”
It will be interesting to see how the broader theology of this film compares to the broader theology of Mel Gibson’s The Resurrection of the Christ, which is due to come out just two weeks after The Chosen: Season 6 Finale. Jenkins says he’s telling “the story of humanity”, and Gibson says his film will cover “the fall of the angels to the death of the last apostle.”
The Chosen: Season 5
It was revealed last Wednesday that this season, which has been streaming on Prime Video since June, will finally be available on The Chosen’s app on September 28. To mark the occasion, Jenkins introduced a behind-the-scenes documentary on the season called ‘The Heart of Season Five’.
Jenkins also revealed that you can now buy T-shirts and hoodies that feature a line from the Dayenu, a song that is recited at Passover seders. The Chosen: Season 5 showed Jesus and his followers reciting this song themselves, but as I pointed out in my analysis of the show’s Last Supper sequences, the Dayenu didn’t exist in the first century, and at least one scholar has proposed that it was created in the Middle Ages as a response to a Christian hymn that accuses the Jews of being ungrateful for the Exodus.1 If that scholar’s theory is correct, then it’s doubly interesting that a line from the Dayenu has been repurposed as a bit of Christian merchandise here.
Regarding The Chosen Adventures, Prime Video issued a press release before the livestream that revealed some extra information about the series. Some of the basic details haven’t changed since Jenkins first announced the show last year:
It will consist of 14 episodes, each of which is about 11 minutes.
It stars Paul Walter Hauser as Sheep, Yvonne Orji as Pigeon, and Jordin Sparks as Fish. (Sparks’s acting credits include the 2014 version of Left Behind, based on the novel co-written by Jenkins’ father Jerry B. Jenkins.)
And it will feature members of the main series’ cast, including Jonathan Roumie as Jesus, Elizabeth Tabish as Mary Magdalene, Paras Patel as Matthew, Noah James as Andrew, George H. Xanthis as John, Joey Vahedi as Thomas, Yasmine Al-Bustami as Ramah, and Brandon Potter as Quintus.
The press release also mentioned several cast members I don’t recall hearing about before:
Romy Fay (The Wingfeather Saga) as nine-year-old Abby, aka Abigail
played by Reina Ozbay in the original 2019 episodes
Jude Zarzaur as Abby’s best friend Joshua
played by Noah Cottrell in the original 2019 episodes
Danny Nucci (Titanic’s Fabrizio) as Abba (presumably Abby’s dad)
played by David DeLao in the original 2019 episodes
Zehra Fazal as Eema (presumably Abby’s mom)
played by Alycya Magana in the original 2019 episodes
Banks Pierce as Hilarius Maximus (see what they did there?)
Julian Grant as Cyrius Maximus (ditto)
I think that about covers it, as far as the livestream goes.
But for my fellow Canadians, there is one other bit of news I can share that did not come up in the livestream: Jonathan & Jesus, a documentary about The Chosen lead actor Jonathan Roumie that has been streaming on Prime Video in the US since January 2024, will finally be available on Prime Video in Canada on September 17.
And now, here is the livestream itself:
Martin Scorsese plays someone named Isaiah… again!
IndieWire reports that Martin Scorsese is playing someone named “Isaiah” in Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante. The character will serve as a mentor of sorts to Dante Alighieri, the 14th-century poet who wrote the Divine Comedy (which includes the Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso).
This amuses me, as Scorsese previously played the prophet Isaiah in 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ. And in that film, Scorsese’s Isaiah helped guide the title character, just like he’ll do in the new film.
In The Last Temptation, Isaiah appears to Jesus and shows him the “suffering servant” passage in Isaiah 53 to let him know that he, too, must suffer on the cross.
And in In the Hand of Dante, “Isaiah” will “represent the highest form of wisdom”, and he’ll be someone whose approval Dante seeks as he writes the Paradiso.
The new film, which alternates between the 14th and 21st centuries, will apparently have some supernatural elements: musician Benjamin Clementine is playing “a demonic character who seesaws between past and present,” as Variety puts it, and the film will play with the idea that Nick Tosches, the author of the 2002 book that the movie is based on, is a reincarnation of Dante. (Both Tosches and Dante are played in the film by Oscar Isaac.)
Given all that, it’s tempting to wonder if there might be something supernatural about “Isaiah”, too (which is apparently not the character’s real name). But I have no reason to believe there is, right now. I just find it interesting that Scorsese is once again playing someone with the name Isaiah who guides or inspires another person.
In the Hand of Dante will premiere at the Venice Film Festival September 3.
Ruth & Boaz gets a trailer
Ruth & Boaz, the upcoming modernization of the book of Ruth produced by Tyler Perry and Devon Franklin, now has a trailer, which you can see above.
One thing this trailer reveals—particularly if you watch it with the captions on—is that Ruth’s last name is “Moably”. As in “Moab-like”. Hmmm.
Anyway, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this film is giving me generic-romance vibes. But the trailer hints at a music-subculture subplot that may or may not have echoes of the friction that existed between Israelites and Moabites when the biblical story took place. As ever, we shall see.
The film starts streaming on Netflix September 26.
The Promised Land director reveals a new fact about Season 1
Lest we forget, The Promised Land—the Office-style comedy about Moses—is going to announce its own release plans soon.
Series creator Mitch Hudson sent out an e-mail on Friday, reminding viewers that the Season 1 release plans will be announced September 3… and along the way, he revealed one more detail about the new season:
Since I made the Pilot episode, people have asked me if I would ever do a flashback scene that takes place in Egypt… Well, one of our new episodes does, in fact, have a flashback to Egypt. I won’t tell you which episode or what happens (sorry), but I will say this: it was the last thing we filmed in Season 1, and it’s still one of my favorite memories from the shoot!
As ever, stay tuned.
The King of Kings no longer the year’s top animated movie in South Korea
Finally, a quick update on The King of Kings’ theatrical release in South Korea.
The film is now up to 1,296,254 admissions—which still makes it the 2nd-highest-grossing South Korean animated movie ever in its home country—but it is no longer the top-grossing animated movie in South Korea this year.
That title has now been taken by the Japanese film Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba The Movie: Infinity Castle, which has racked up 3,154,068 admissions in ten days.
Ah, well. The King of Kings is still a big success, however you slice it.
The film’s global total now stands at $77.6 million, of which $60.3 million is from the US & Canada and $8.8 million is from South Korea.
Upcoming Bible movies and TV shows:
September 5, 2025 — Light of the World (theatrical: Salvation Poem Project)
September 6, 2025 — You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution... (theatrical: Toronto International Film Festival)
September 18, 2025 — Sight & Sound Presents: Noah - Live! (theatrical: Fathom)
September 26, 2025 — Ruth & Boaz (streaming: Netflix)
September 28, 2025 — The Chosen: Season 5 (streaming: The Chosen app)
October 5, 2025 — House of David: Season 2 (streaming: Prime Video - Wonder Project)
October 17, 2025 — The Chosen Adventures (streaming: Prime Video)
Fall 2025 — The Carpenter’s Son (theatrical: Magnolia)
November 2025 — Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints: Season 2 part 1 (streaming: Fox Nation)
December 19, 2025 — Zero A.D. (theatrical: Angel Studios)
2025 (no month specified… yet!) — The Promised Land: Season 1 (streaming)
March 22-April 5, 2026 — The Faithful (television: Fox)
April-May 2026 — Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints: Season 2 part 2 (streaming: Fox Nation)
second half of 2026 — The Chosen: Season 6: Episodes 1-6 (streaming: Prime Video)
March 12, 2027 — The Chosen: Season 6: Finale (theatrical: Amazon MGM)
March 26, 2027 — The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One (theatrical: Lionsgate)
May 6, 2027 — The Resurrection of the Christ: Part Two (theatrical: Lionsgate)
March 31, 2028 — The Chosen: Season 7: Premiere (theatrical: Amazon MGM)
no release date specified — David (theatrical)
no release date specified — Jacob (theatrical: Angel Studios)
no release date specified — Joseph of Egypt (streaming: Prime Video)
who knows when Malick will finish it — The Way of the Wind (theatrical)
The Chosen’s merch website says the Dayenu is an “ancient Passover song”, but it’s not. Like a few other Passover traditions that are depicted in The Chosen—like leaving a chair for Elijah, or removing drops of wine from the cup with one’s finger as one recites the list of plagues—it only goes back to the Middle Ages.