Why I won’t be watching The Chosen

The Chosen: the Last Supper is coming to the big screens on 28th March 2026. But I shan’t be going to see it.

I realise that lots of Christians are very excited about this movie. A few cinema owners are also excited, bracing themselves for an onslaught of patrons who don’t come to watch any of the other movies for reasons they can’t quite understand. These unfamiliar customers don’t want to buy a loyalty card. They tend not to buy the largest boxes of popcorn. Just the small (which already exceeds your monthly recommended allowance of popcorn). They do, at least, leave slightly less litter than the regular patrons and tend to be more polite to the staff. The cinema owners might want to warn that any staff demonstrating signs of visible illness that may be prayed for. (This should probably be reflected in a Duty of Care for Employees policy who may exercise their right not be exorcised). 

This is nothing new. There have been outlier Christian movies for decades drawing crowds who normally stay away from movie theatres. The Passion of the Christ grossed around $600 million back in 2004. 

But The Chosen isn’t a mere movie. It is a phenomenon. Funded by backers via Angel, this adaptation of the life of Jesus Christ has been streaming like water in the wilderness since Dallas Jenkins struck a rock back in 2019. He has created a show with high production values that has delighted Christians. At last, something that’s as good as TV made by non-Christians!  

It’s what Christians have been waiting for since Jesus of Nazareth came out in 1977. Robert Powell was cast as Jesus in that version because the producer’s wife had seen him in a BBC adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure. She thought he’d be a perfect Jesus because he had “wonderful blue eyes”. And we all know Jesus had wonderful blue eyes. Right? 

Of course not. Jesus’s eye colour is not recorded in any of the gospels. But if you are making television, you need an actor. And an actor has eyes. And those eyes have a colour. Which is the problem. When you’re making television, you have to make choices. About everything. Every single thing. The composition of every single shot. Naturally, the makers of The Chosen, faithful Christians, have done their homework. All kinds of scholars and archaeologists have been consulted. 

They have also been consulted over the script to help answer the question: how do you shoot scenes from the gospel? Which gospel? Which version of the story? Jesus feeds the five thousand in all four gospels. (Fun fact: It’s the only one that is in all four gospels, resurrection excluded.) It is recognisably the same event. But the miracle is doing something slightly different in each gospel. The Chosen has not ‘picked’ a gospel. That, in itself, is a bold choice, since now you are in the business of harmonising the gospel which the Bible doesn’t actually do. So how do you faithfully do what the Bible does not do? 

Am I being theologically fussy? Why can’t I just take the win? Why can’t I be like millions of other faithful Christians and just enjoy the show? Why can’t I rejoice at a decent, faithful, Christian representation of the gospel accounts of the life of Christ? 

Because it’s not faithful. 

I’ve watched an episode. It’s the one in which Nicodemus is told that he must be born again. Nicodemus naturally has a backstory. Again, you have to create one in order to turn the gospels into a television show. But the crucial scene is different from the version in John 3. The lines have been changed, switched around and augmented. Words are put into the mouth of Jesus that he did not say. To quote Prince Humperdinck from The Princess Bride: “I would not do such things if I were you.” 

I can hear the reply: “It’s just moooooovieeeee!” 

That’s not an argument. It’s a statement. And it is also a dangerous sentence. Words that appear inconsequential have great power. The word ‘just’ is intentionally undercutting the word ‘movie’. Movies are an intentional assault on the senses that create indelible images in our minds. That is, if they are any good. And The Chosen is clearly really good. Some might declare it “unforgettable”. 

And that is my main reason for not watching The Chosen. The show will inevitably shape your understanding and perception of Jesus. How can it not? 

What happens when you watch a movie and then read the book? You will find yourself imagining the characters in the roles. Go back and re-read The Lord of the Rings after having watched the movies. Gandalf, played by Sir Ian McKellan, inhabits the role so brilliantly, you will struggle to expunge him from your mind when you read the books again. 

The show will inevitably shape your understanding and perception of Jesus. How can it not? 

Representing Jesus may not be a violation of the second commandment about graven images. But why does the Lord expressly tell his people not to represent him as an idol? Because it shapes your imagination and limits your understanding of an unlimited, eternal God. 

Immerse yourself in The Chosen and Jesus, the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3) will rapidly resemble a 6ft (1.82m) tall, brown-eyed Irish-Egyptian man in his early fifties. I don’t want that. Just like I would not have wanted him to resemble the blue-eyed Robert Powell. 

So for that reason, I’m not going to watch The Chosen. If you go, go easy on the popcorn, smile at the staff but do not pray for them without their clear consent.