The new cast of the sequel to Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” has been revealed.
According to Variety, Finnish actor Jaakko Ohtonen will portray Jesus Christ. Ohtonen previously appeared in Netflix’s “The Last Kingdom.” Ohtonen will replace Jim Caviezel.
“The Resurrection of the Christ” will be released in two parts. The first film is set to be released on Good Friday, March 26, 2027, with the second installment set for release on Ascension Day, May 6, 2027.
Gibson has for years teased a followup to the 2004 box office hit, and Caviezel has expressed his readiness to return to the role of Jesus. In 2023, Caviezel indicated that he was in regular contact with Gibson regarding the progress of the script and said that the movie would “be the biggest film in history.”
However, it was reported last week that the film would move forward with an entirely new cast.
An anonymous source told Page Six that the reasons for recasting are the cost associated with digitally de-aging actors to compensate for the two-decade lapse between the “The Passion of the Christ” and its sequel, which are set days apart from one another, as well as scheduling issues.
Regarding the amount of time that has passed since the release of “The Passion of the Christ” relative to its sequel, Gibson has expressed that writing a script has been no small feat.
In May, Gibson said, “It took me about eight years to write the script for the sequel, if we can call that ‘The Resurrection of Christ,’ because it’s a very complex and almost impossible to understand subject.”
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“It was a very difficult thing to find and synthesize, because you have to understand, firstly, why it had to happen. And to understand something like that, you have to think, like, why is mankind so important in this process,” he said. “Why are the big realms of good and evil slugging it out for the hearts, minds, and souls of mankind?”
