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The fifth season of The Chosen depicts a crucial period in the life of Jesus
In its fifth season, The Chosen gets into iconic territory. As we enter the week leading up to Jesus’ (Jonathan Roumie) crucifixion, scenes viewers have been waiting for, since the series launched, are being teed up from the moment the Messiah arrives in Jerusalem. “It’s the most important week in the history of the world, and it’s the most intense season that we’ve done,” says series creator Dallas Jenkins. “Everyone’s excited about the Last Supper, the turning of the tables in the temple and the cursing of the fig tree and want to see how we’re going to portray them, but it’s the moments in between that help make those moments that much more impactful.”
Last season, we left off with Jesus leading his disciples into Jerusalem. While it is a joyous occasion, the group enters the city with some trepidation. “Mary, Jesus’ mother (Vanessa Benavente), knew that something devastating was coming. Jesus knows what’s coming is devastating,” says Jenkins. “At the same time, he’s walking into a group of people who are worshipping him, laying out their cloaks, waving palm branches, singing Hosanna. There’s this moment of joy and worship that must have pleased Jesus, on one hand, but at the same time, he knows that some of these people are going to turn on him and want his death. He also knows that he’s going to rise again and launch the greatest movement of faith the world has ever known. So, it is a cornucopia of emotions that he and his apostles are facing.”
Armed with an awareness of what is coming, we get to see a feistier side of Jesus than we have seen before. “We’ve seen him be frustrated. We’ve seen him occasionally go after some Pharisees. But the week leading up to the cross, it is incredible how many truth bombs he was dropping and the way that he was dropping them,” says Jenkins. “What we explore in this season is not only Jesus doing that, but how his disciples are reacting. We know the religious leaders were scandalized and wanted him dead because of it, but what about the people who loved him and believed in him, and yet are thrown by what he’s doing?”
For the first time since the show premiered, the episodes will first be shown in theatres around North America before making their way to the small screen. The Chosen: Last Supper Part 1, premieres on Friday, March 28, with the second part arriving the following Friday, and the third part on the Friday after that. The entire season will then stream on Prime Video later this year (the streamer is officially the series’ new home, following a deal announced last month).
For Jenkins, premiering the new season theatrically provided an opportunity to go visually bigger and more cinematic than ever before. “This season belongs on the big screen because it’s so big — the sets are all huge,” says Jenkins. “But the things I’m always most motivated by and most excited about are the private moments, the moments between Jesus and his friends. There are a couple of scenes this season that I am so excited about, and they’re the quietest, most intimate moments, between Jesus and his own mother, scenes between Jesus and one disciple at a time that have so much emotional weight to them.”
The season also injects some humour, which Jenkins felt was necessary as we build up to the sixth instalment of the series, which will be entirely dedicated to the crucifixion. “Jesus kicks a lot of butt, takes a lot of names,” he says. “We wanted to have a little fun with that, even though the subject matter is very weighty. It’s fun to see Jesus give some people what they’re due. It’s fun to see him go after his enemies in a way that we haven’t seen before. Season six, he gives himself over and it’s the most devastating moment we can imagine. But season five, there’s some fun moments.”
What has long stood out about The Chosen is not just its humanity and humour, but how it depicts the women surrounding Jesus. “We know from scripture that women are present and there are key moments throughout the gospels in which women are at the forefront, but it’s just not fleshed out much [in pop culture],” says Jenkins. “Fleshing that out and recognizing how much Jesus did honour women, all of that is worth taking time to explore. I’m not doing it to make some sort of statement. I’m doing it just to accurately reflect the reality of Jesus’s ministry.”
As millions tune in to see the next chapter in Jesus’ journey, Jenkins can’t help but reflect on the impact the series has had both globally and on himself. “Over a third of our viewers are not traditional believers, and what I’m hearing from them, too, is that the show is impacting them in some way, or showing them something they hadn’t considered before,” he says. “That is really exciting to me. It’s the individual conversations and the things that I’ve heard from people specifically, that means more to me than the numbers.”
The Chosen, premieres in theatres Friday, March 28