‘It’s 2 Films’—Mel Gibson Describes the Pressure He Feels With ‘The Resurrection of the Christ’

Academy Award-winning director Mel Gibson provided new information about his upcoming film “The Resurrection of the Christ,” the follow-up to his 2004 blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ,” which grossed over $610 million at the box office globally.

Last weekend, Gibson joined ScreenRant’s Joe Deckelmeier at Fan Expo Philadelphia and answered fans’ questions.

One fan asked, “With ‘The Resurrection of the Christ’ set to continue the story of ‘The Passion the Christ,’ how did you approach elevating the narrative and scale of the sequel compared to the original?”

“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,” Gibson answered, “so that necessarily you have to underpin it with a great deal of all of salvation history and theology.”

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Gibson shared some of his team’s writing process and why it has taken so long.

“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. “Like why are the big realms of good and evil slugging it out for the hearts minds and souls of mankind?”

“Why us?” Gibson added. “We’re just a bunch of f**ked up things. We’re so imperfect.” He clarified, “Speak for myself.”

Describing the premise for the film, Gibson said:

You have to ask yourself, why are we important in that and why are we the meat in the sandwich of that whole huge story. And I think in order to understand that, you have to start with the fall of the angels in the firmament before—right at the beginning.

Gibson admitted, “It’s a pretty crazy idea. What did that look like?” He said, “I know what it looks like. It’s a pretty big thing. It’s not one film, it’s two films, because it’s massive.”