The Chosen Season 4 creators speak some more!
The producers and two co-stars on how the season ends, and what might lie in the show's future. Also: a new trailer, and a clip from the season's final episodes.
The Chosen Season 4: Episodes 7-8 comes to theatres today, so it’s time to post a couple more interviews from the season’s press junket and world premiere back in January.
I had to hold these interviews back because they touch on a few spoiler-ish elements from the season’s last two episodes, but now that those episodes are here, there’s nothing to hide any more, so it’s time to set these interviews free!
First, one last video interview:
Paras Patel, who plays Matthew, and Noah James, who plays Andrew:
The Jesus movement is growing, and so is The Chosen. (0:16)
The disciples put on a skit. (1:46)
EPISODES 7-8 SPOILERS: The big flash-forward. (3:15)
The Matthew-Peter relationship reaches a turning point. (4:19)
And then, one last audio interview from the teal carpet, with a few bits transcribed; this one isn’t super-spoiler-y, but it does touch on how Season 4 ends:
Chad Gundersen and Chris Juen, two of the show’s producers:
Sample quotes, starting with one at the 1:49 mark:
CG: At the end of the day, while our story is about the life of Christ, in essence it’s not really about Christ, it’s about the disciples and those that interact with him, like Mary Magdalene and all these others, like how did Jesus impact them, so at the end of the day that’s what it’s about, for me. How did Jesus impact me, right? And then how can I turn around and honour him, and all those things. And that’s what this story does.
Then, at the 2:59 mark:
CJ: I remember we got to the end of the first four [episodes], and we’re like, okay, hold on, you could tell that the funding is kind of taking off, and we were going to be going for a bit, so I said, hey, you’ve been out talking about eight, nine seasons or something like that, multi-season, I said, so, you got ’em plotted out? Because I was like, we got to start planning, because I’m a logistics guy. And so they went and did a writers’ retreat, and so it was right after one through four, they went off and did a writers’ retreat to kind of plot it out.
PTC: That was, like, half-way through season one?
CJ: Yeah. And that’s where the seven came about.
Then, at the 3:48 mark:
CJ: We’re racing against time to make sure our actors don’t look like they’ve aged a decade!
CG: You’ll start seeing in seasons to come where we don’t start sticking to more traditional timelines in that sense, and I don’t mean non-traditional in a weird way, just a, well, this whole season could be a day, and I’m not saying that that’s going to happen—
PTC: I’ve heard that rumour!
CG: Well, rumours are what they are. But, so, meaning that you could definitely kind of condense the timelines in a different way.
PTC: This is the context in which the rumour came up: I was talking to somebody else about the fact that Season 4 essentially ends on Palm Sunday, and I’ve heard—I even heard, through the door, Dallas say this to somebody else today—that Season 6 is the crucifixion season. Now, Season 4 ends on Palm Sunday, Season 5, and then Season 6 is crucifixion? So, what are we doing there? I’ve heard—and this is partly supposition—is Season 5 basically, like, Passion Week, and then Season 6 is what you suggested, a whole day in one season? Are you going to go Jack Bauer on us?
CG: Yeah yeah yeah, I’m not, I’m not going to— Again, I’m not, by no means giving away, I’m making those timelines up, but what I will say is we have a timeline to go by, and we do stick to the timeline. So I would say that your overall assessment isn’t wrong, but I’m not going to tell you you’re right. How’s that?
And, that about does it for my world-premiere coverage.
On a more review-ish note, I’ve written some comments on Episodes 1-3 here, and I’ll have more to say about the rest of the season in the near future.
In the meantime, The Chosen has released two new videos to promote Episodes 7-8.
First, this clip of Jesus (Jonathan Roumie) talking to Lazarus (Demetrios Troy), in which they quote the ‘Suffering Servant’ passage from Isaiah 53:
And then, this trailer for Episodes 7-8:
The Chosen Season 4: Episodes 7-8 will be in theatres until March 10.
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The Chosen interviews:
Season 1: Dallas Jenkins, co-writer/director (Dec 2019)
Season 2: Dallas Jenkins, co-writer/director (May 2021) | Derral Eves, producer, on Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers (Nov 2021) | Dallas Jenkins on the ‘The Chosen Is Not Good’ marketing campaign (Apr 2022)
Season 3: Jordan Walker Ross, Little James (Oct 2022) | Vanessa Benavente, Mother Mary (Nov 2022) | Kirk B.R. Woller, Gaius (Nov 2022)
The Chosen recaps:
Season 1: review | scripture index
Episode recaps: The Shepherd | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eightSeason 2: The Messengers review | scripture index
Episode recaps: one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | The MessengersSeason 3: Episodes 1 & 2 notes | Episodes 7 & 8 notes | scripture index
Episode recaps: one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eightSeason 4: Episodes 1-3 notes
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The Chosen can be streamed via Angel Studios or the show’s app (Android | Apple).