The hit streaming series The Chosen unveiled this week a much-anticipated image from its new season, in which its director and lead actor took a not-so-subtle dig at the controversial Olympics Opening Ceremony.
The image from the upcoming Season 5 depicts Jesus sitting at a table surrounded by his disciples in a depiction of the Last Supper.
“Better than the Olympics image?” director and creator Dallas Jenkins wrote on Facebook.
“Yeah…I prefer our version,” actor Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus in the series, wrote on his Instagram page.
The Opening Ceremony Friday night featured drag queens seemingly reenacting Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper. Although the Opening Ceremony’s designer, Thomas Jolly, said it was not da Vinci’s painting that inspired the scene, but instead Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and fertility, the Opening Ceremony’s producers contradicted Jolly, saying in a statement that The Last Supper did indeed serve as inspiration for Jolly.
Season 5, Jenkins said this summer, will cover Holy Week.
“Holy Week includes the triumphal entry [into Jerusalem], it includes Jesus turning over the tables, it includes Jesus arguing with Pharisees in the temple,” Jenkins told media members in a virtual news conference. And, of course, we’re also exploring what Holy Week meant for the disciples, followers, and enemies of Jesus in real-time.”
Jenkins noted that “we have the benefit of looking back on Holy Week” and knowing what happened.
“By the end of it, everyone had turned” against Jesus, he said. “... We show the disciples working this out in their heads and not being able to comprehend what we’re able to comprehend today.”
Several scenes include hundreds of extras.
“And after the scene was completed, [people were] coming up to me with tears in their eyes, having a first-row seat to some exciting moments and some painful moments,” Jenkins said.
He added, “It’s really shaping up to be our most impactful season yet.”
Photo Credit: ©The Chosen
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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