A new actor has been cast to play Jesus in the 2027 two-part film The Resurrection of the Christ, Mel Gibson’s long-awaited sequel to the 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ, according to Variety.
The outlet reported Oct. 14 that Finnish actor Jaakko Ohtonen, 36, will be stepping into the lead role, replacing Jim Caviezel, who portrayed Jesus in the first movie. Ohtonen has starred in a number of TV series, including “The Last Kingdom,” “All the Sins,” and “Vikings: Valhalla.”
This is not the only recast of the film; the actresses playing Mary Magdalene and the Blessed Virgin Mary are also new. Mariela Garriga will play the former and Kasia Smutniak the latter. Pier Luigi Pasino will play the Apostle Peter, and Riccardo Scamarico will play Pontius Pilate.
The reason for the changes is reportedly due to expenses.
Variety reported that a source close to the production told the outlet that the studio would have had to digitally de-age people’s faces in the sequel, which “would have been very costly.”
Filming for The Resurrection of the Christ began last week in Rome, according to the entertainment outlet.
CatholicVote previously reported that Gibson spoke about the complexity of the sequels during an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience earlier this year.
Gibson said the script took about seven years for him and his co-writers to complete.
“I’ve never read anything like it,” he said. “There’s some crazy stuff. In order to tell the story properly you have to start with the fall of the angels. You’re in another realm. You need to go [to] Hell. You need to go to Sheol.”
The dates for the release of the two-part film were revealed in August. Part One will come to theaters on Good Friday in 2027, which falls on March 26. Part Two will be released on May 6, 2027, the feast of the Ascension.
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