“The Chosen” has set all sorts of records for a fan-supported show project. There have been more than 420-million episodes viewed worldwide. Season 3 is coming soon – and the first two episodes will actually debut at movie theaters. [hear complete podcast]
There are plans for seven seasons in all, sticking with “an authentic and intimate picture of Jesus’ life and ministry, seen through the eyes of the people who knew him.”
“Last year we did a Christmas special (at theaters) with a brand-new episode of “The Chosen,” which is about 35-minites, and we surrounded it with a bunch of music videos from artists singing Christmas songs. And we decided to put it into theaters because we thought ‘well, this will be fun – maybe a one-night event, a two-night event’ - it sold-out so fast that the theaters wanted to extend it. They kept it in theaters for over ten days and ended-up number-5 at the box office without us really trying … It exploded,” shares creator Dallas Jenkins.
After the incredible interest last year, the first two episodes of Season 3 will be shown at theaters nationwide starting November 18th. “It expands the reach of the show. More people hear about it. They see it in environments where they may not normally otherwise see it.”
“The theme of Season 3 is ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest,’” says Jenkins. “The honeymoon phase is over, now the characters all have to deal with the costs and occasional confusions of following the Messiah.”
“The Chosen” has been criticized here and there for perhaps taking too much liberty with certain storylines. But Jenkins wants viewers to understand, “The show is not necessarily a bible show. Now obviously, and I want to be very clear about this, our primary source of truth and inspiration is the bible. But, a lot of the content comes from cultural context, historical context, artistic imagination – things we can see from just what we can gather that’s in the Gospels.” He believes that the Gospels were written in a way appropriate for that time in history, but sometime require context to help us get a clearer picture today.
“When we do a story that’s from the bible, we change very, very, little, if anything, certainly not the words of Jesus. Sometimes we might change the timeline or maybe we’ll change the location or something like that, but when it comes to the stories in the bible, we obviously treat the bible very seriously and we want to honor that.” Jenkins makes it clear about dialogue written for the shows, “We’re not adding to the bible. The bible is the bible,” it’s just necessary to have the characters interact, “capturing the lives of the people of Galilee in the first century” alongside biblical accounts.
There’s a fascinating backstory to how “The Chosen” came to be. And there have been some indications that God has moved in ways to help the production. Dallas shares that in our complete podcast interview just below.
