Watch: The first full trailer for modernized-book-of-Acts series Testament
The first episode starts streaming on Pentecost, i.e. June 8.
Three weeks after releasing the teaser, Angel Studios has released the first full trailer for Testament, the series that sets the book of Acts in an alternate version of the present day—and with it, they have also announced the show’s release date: June 8, which, appropriately enough, is Pentecost this year.
You can watch the trailer here:
Among other things, this trailer appears to reveal or allude to:
The empty tomb (Mark 16:1-8, Matthew 28:1-8, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-12).
Pentecost, including the wind that rushes into the room and Peter’s first sermon (Acts 2).
Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11).
The conversion of Stephen (his conversion isn’t depicted in the Bible, but he is a member of the Church—indeed, one of its first deacons—by Acts 6:5).
Saul of Tarsus working for the religious authorities (exactly when he started working for them is also not specified in the Bible, but he’s involved in persecuting the Christians by Acts 7:58, and we later learn in Acts 22:3 that he was raised in Jerusalem and studied under the religious leaders there).
There’s also a very brief shot of what I thought, at first, was someone on the verge of being beheaded, but on closer inspection maybe that’s a whip and not a sword in the background? The only disciple who was killed with a sword in the early chapters of Acts is James son of Zebedee (Acts 12:2), but this is not the actor who is playing that character. On the other hand, multiple disciples were flogged (Acts 5:40), so this could very easily be one of those characters, or indeed it could be any of the early Christians who were persecuted and imprisoned by Saul and his colleagues (Acts 8:1-3).
Many actors and characters have been announced or revealed over the past year or so, but these are the ones that were highlighted in a press release yesterday:
The series stars Eben Figueiredo as Saul, Charlie Beaven as Stephen, Mogali Masuku as Mary of Magdala, Tom Simper as Peter, Stuart Scudamore as Gamaliel, and Yasmin Paige as Mara.
It’s still not clear to me who “Mara” is supposed to be. There’s no one with that name in the Bible unless you count Naomi, the mother-in-law of Ruth, who asked her friends to call her “Mara” (which means “bitter”) because God had made her life very bitter (Ruth 1:20). But she’s not part of the book of Acts.
It also bears mentioning that this will be at least the eighth Bible movie or TV show to feature Stuart Scudamore, following his performances as Judah in In the Beginning (2000), James in Bible Mysteries (2004), a Street Preacher in The Nativity Story (2006), Ramesses in The Bible (2013), King Hamor in The Red Tent (2014), Peter in Risen (2016), and Adriel in House of David (2025-present). You can see pictures of him as all these characters in my post on Hobbit and Lord of the Rings actors who have also been in Bible movies (he played a ‘Grizzled Southlander’ in The Rings of Power).
I’ll have more to say about this series as its release date approaches.
In the meantime, previous videos for Testament (i.e. the videos I’ve posted or written about; there are many more on the Angel and Testament YouTube pages):
The ‘The Journey Begins’ livestream (July 6, 2022)
The ‘Worldwide Premiere Watch Party’ video (October 8, 2022)
The ‘Why This Story?’ watch party video (February 19, 2023)
The ‘Production dates revealed!’ video (October 21, 2023)
The ‘We Are Filming!’ livestream (February 16, 2024)
The ‘Week 1 Recap’, ‘Ministers Unwrapped’, and ‘Exclusive First Look’ videos (July 26, 2024)
The ‘Week 3 Recap’ and ‘Minister Ananias’ videos (August 31, 2024)
The teaser (April 10, 2025)
As noted above, Testament will start streaming via the Angel app and website June 8.
Upcoming Bible movies and TV shows:
June 8, 2025 — Testament (streaming: Angel Studios)
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 Chosen Adventures (streaming)
2025 (no month specified) — The Promised Land season 1 (streaming)
2025 (no month specified) — R&B (streaming: Netflix)
no release date specified — David (theatrical)
no release date specified — Jacob (theatrical: Angel Studios)
no release date specified — The Carpenter’s Son (theatrical…?)
no release date specified — Judas’ Gospel (theatrical…?)
who knows when Malick will finish it — The Way of the Wind (theatrical)