Watch: The trailer for this year's edition of Christmas with The Chosen
Watch: The trailer for this year's edition of Christmas with The Chosen
The Chosen's third Christmas special, and the second to play in theatres, will include a new re-edit of the first two Christmas episodes 'The Shepherd' and 'The Messengers'.
It’s really been turning into Video Central around here lately, hasn’t it? My Zoom chat with Matt, the constant stream of Journey to Bethlehem featurettes…
Now we have a trailer for Christmas with The Chosen: Holy Night, which is (a) the second Chosen-connected Christmas special to get a theatrical release, (b) the third Chosen-connected Christmas special overall, and (c) the fourth Chosen theatrical release of any sort; it also marks (d) the fifth consecutive Christmas in which there has been either a new Chosen-related holiday special or a new set of The Chosen episodes.1
You can watch the trailer here:
This year’s Christmas special was first announced a few weeks ago, and it sounds like there won’t be all that much in it that is new, this time:
It will feature seven music performances, including a brand new one by Andrea and Matteo Bocelli, as well as two new monologues.
This would seem to suggest that the other six music performances—and, perhaps, any extra monologues on top of the two new ones—were originally featured in one or both of the previous Christmas specials.
It will also feature a new-ish episode that combines footage from The Shepherd, the proof-of-concept “pilot episode” that kicked off the show’s crowdfunding campaign in 2017, with footage from The Messengers, a sort of bonus episode that played in theatres as part of the second Christmas special in 2021.
I do not believe there is any new footage in this re-edited episode, but it will feature a new score to help smooth over the seams.
The Shepherd and The Messengers featured the same actors as Mary and Joseph, but they told very different stories—one from the perspective of a shepherd who ends up paying homage to the Christ child, the other from the perspective of Mary when she’s 50 years older and remembering the events of that night—so I am curious to see how successfully the two episodes can be woven into a single coherent narrative.
And that’s before we take into account any aesthetic differences between the two episodes, which were filmed four years apart.
At any rate, we’ll find out soon enough. Christmas with The Chosen: Holy Night comes to theatres December 12-17, and tickets go on sale November 20.
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And, just in case you’re getting lost in the sea of announcements, these are the Bible films (and Bible-adjacent films) coming to theatres in the next few months:
November 10 — Journey to Bethlehem
December 1 — The Shift (a sci-fi take on the book of Job, executive-produced by Dallas Jenkins and featuring a few actors from The Chosen)
December 12 — Christmas with The Chosen: Holy Night
January 12 — The Book of Clarence
February 1 — The Chosen Season 4: Episodes 1-3
February 15 — The Chosen Season 4: Episodes 4-6
February 29 — The Chosen Season 4: Episodes 7-8
The animated series Young David will also be streaming new episodes on November 10, December 8, January 12, February 9, and March 8. Busy busy busy.
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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 | eight
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The Chosen can be streamed via Angel Studios or the show’s app (Android | Apple).
In case you’re wondering what the precedents are: The second half of Season 1 came out just before Christmas 2019, the first Christmas special started streaming in 2020, the second Christmas special got a theatrical release in 2021, Season 3’s first two episodes got a theatrical release in November 2022 (and the first three episodes were streaming by Christmas), and Season 3’s last two episodes got a theatrical release in February 2023.
Season 2, which started streaming in the spring and summer of 2021, is the only season of The Chosen that did not get a theatrical release or coincide with Christmas.