The first two episodes of the hit series about the life of Jesus will premiere together in movie theaters nationwide.
Cast and crew of The Chosen are currently on set in Texas filming the latest scenes of the faith-based program. Series creator and director Dallas Jenkins announced last night he plans to release the third season starting on November 18th when episodes one and two will debut on the silver screen.
It will be a brief run in theaters before they hit the show's streaming platform, where they will be available for free - as is current practice with The Chosen - and the remaining six episodes will then follow one per week in that same online venue. Jenkins broke the news during one of his frequent livestream updates for fans of the show and did so from Midlothian, TX, which is home to its new set that recreates first century Capernaum.
The 47-year-old husband and father of four revealed that though he feels "season three is turning out fantastic," scheduling issues are making the remaining several weeks of production a real challenge. Among them are ongoing construction of the aforementioned set (it's been delayed by supply-chain problems), lost production days and a $500,000 cost overrun because of Covid infections which hit - among others - actress Elizabeth Tabish; she plays the Mary Magdeline character and also appears in the livestream. Jenkins says it has all put him in a difficult position.
"I hesitate to use this word, but it's a scary time. We don't know what the future holds. We don't know how we're going to make some of these schedules work. We don't know where the money's going to come from when there's more that's needed than we anticipated."
Additional financial contributions through the show's pay-it-forward program would clearly help, but Jenkins, who is a devout Christian, is also asking for "a lot of prayer" from supporters of the series, knowing that he and his team must remain reliant on God.
"My wife calls it the manna program, where every day we come out like the Israelites for their daily manna. And as God told the Israelites, 'Do not store it up, or I will make it rot,' because He wanted them to be hands outstretched. He wanted them to be surrendered. We are in that position of surrender."
A few other noteworthy tidbits from the livestream included the insight that season six will feature the crucifixion of Jesus and season seven - the final one - will include the resurrection and the interactions with His disciples that follow in the Gospel narrative from the Bible. Jenkins also showed two scenes from season three, each of them a homecoming: one with James and John and the other with Peter. You can check them out below in the livestream, which runs just under one hour and ten minutes.