Watch: David flees Saul and speaks to Jonathan in new clips from two very different David movies/shows
The newest clip from Angel Studios' animated musical shows David — and Saul — visiting the priests of Nob; meanwhile, Wonder Project has released two new clips from House of David Season 2.
Davids, Davids everywhere!
The Wonder Project series House of David is currently half-way through Season 2 and releasing new clips in advance of each episode. Meanwhile, Angel Studios is stepping up the marketing campaign for the animated musical David, with three new videos this week alone—and the film isn’t even due in theatres for another eight weeks!
Here are the clips that have come my way in the last 24 hours.
David — December 19
Let’s start with the animated movie. The clip below—the third video the studio has released this week, following a teaser and another musical excerpt that came out two days ago—shows David on the run from King Saul, and David’s family going into hiding:
A few quick thoughts:
This clip zips right through David’s encounter with the priests of Nob (I Samuel 21:1-9) and Saul’s subsequent slaughter of them, their families, and the entire town where they lived (I Samuel 22). It also shows David’s family—his parents and his siblings—fleeing to a cave where they can hide (I Samuel 22:1).
Note how the priests of Nob seem to have two swords in their tent, not just the one that Goliath used (I Samuel 21:9)—and David takes the smaller one.
Why does David drop the scabbard on the floor? He’s not going to hold the sword in his hand—safely—the whole time he’s on the run, is he?
I get that this is a musical, and the song allows the film to take a lot of shortcuts. Still, it’s interesting how this clip removes some of the moral ambiguity around David’s actions: the biblical David lied to the priests and said he was on a mission from Saul (I Samuel 21:2, 8)—and when Saul murdered the priests for helping him, David admitted he was responsible for their deaths (I Samuel 22:22). But in the clip, the priest knows David is on the run and shows him how to get away safely—so the priest basically knows what he’s doing, which changes the moral calculus somewhat. (David might be responsible for drawing Saul’s attention to Nob, but the priest of Nob is now directly responsible for helping David flee.)
On the other hand, David does just walk into the tent and grab the sword without talking to anyone first, which, if anything, is even more dodgy than what the biblical David did: the biblical David asked the priests if they had a weapon he could use, and they offered him Goliath’s sword (I Samuel 21:8-9). But the priest in the film shows up right away and seems to approve, so I guess it’s all good.
A key figure in the tracking of David and the murder of the priests is Doeg the Edomite, who we met earlier in an episode of Young David. See my comments about the depiction of that character—including the hairiness he seems to have inherited from Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites—here.
Like ‘Tapestry’, this song is ultimately a duet of sorts between David and his mother Nitzevet. So, two of the four clips released so far feature David’s mother—and I’m very happy to see that she’s still alive during David’s adulthood (unlike the mothers in House of David and Of Kings and Prophets).
David’s mother, incidentally, is played by Israeli singer-actress Miri Mesika—just as Moses’ mother was voiced by Israeli singer Ofra Haza in The Prince of Egypt. So, maybe that’s another parallel between the two films?1
Some of these visuals are absolutely beautiful.
As noted above, David is coming to theatres December 19.
October 31 update: The studio has released a new version of the clip which mixes footage from the film with behind-the-scenes footage of the song being recorded:
Previous videos for David:
The demo video (October 24, 2021)
A one-minute clip (August 31, 2025; starts at the 55:53 mark)
The ‘Follow the Light’ clip (October 9, 2025)
The pay-it-forward announcement with new footage (October 15, 2025)
The ‘Samuel’s Blessing’ clip (October 16, 2025)
The teaser and the ‘Tapestry’ clip (October 23, 2025)
Plus see my posts on the Young David series: episodes one, two, three, four, five.
House of David Season 2 Episode 5 — October 26
And now for a couple clips from House of David, and specifically the episode coming out this Sunday. First, via Vital Thrills, Jonathan (Ethan Kai) asks David (Michael Iskander) what it feels like to be anointed:
And second, via UrbanBridgez.com, Mychal (Indy Lewis) teaches some children how to write:
I don’t have a lot to say about these clips, though I do wonder about the literacy rates in ancient Israel, particularly where women were concerned. Then again, I have no problem believing that the king’s daughter, at least, had a formal education of sorts.
If any more videos from Episode 5 pop up, I will add them here.
As noted above, Episode 5 starts streaming on the Wonder Project channel on Prime Video this Sunday, October 26.
Previous videos for House of David:
The first Season 1 trailer (January 30, 2025)
The For King + Country ‘40’ video (February 11, 2025)
The second Season 1 trailer (February 25, 2025)
The Season 2 trailer (September 19, 2025)
The Season 1 clips and Season 2 Episode 1 + 2 clips (October 3, 2025)
The Season 2 Episode 3 clips (October 10, 2025)
The Season 2 Episode 4 clips (October 17, 2025)
Upcoming Bible movies and TV shows:
now-October 29, 2025 — The Promised Land: Season 1 (streaming: YouTube)
now-November 16, 2025 — House of David: Season 2 (streaming: Prime Video - Wonder Project)
November 14, 2025 — The Carpenter’s Son (theatrical: Magnolia)
November 2025 — Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints: Season 2 part 1 (streaming: Fox Nation)
December 19, 2025 — David (theatrical: Angel Studios)
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)
sometime in 2026 — Zero A.D. (theatrical: Angel Studios)
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 — 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)
In an essay I wrote on the making of The Prince of Egypt, I devoted a paragraph to the role of female characters in that film, and I noted: “a significant part of the movie is driven by Moses’ birth mother Yocheved and the lullaby she sings to him; indeed, it is Yocheved who utters the last words in the film, as her voice sings ‘Deliver us!’ on the soundtrack one last time while Moses stands atop Mount Sinai. Right to the end, the liberation of the Hebrews is presented as an answer to a mother’s prayer.” It is interesting to see David’s mother given a similarly high, if not higher, profile in the marketing campaign for David so far.