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‘The Chosen’ S6 Trailer: The Passion Gets Very Real

‘The Chosen’ S6 Trailer: The Passion Gets Very Real

Last updated on: October 16, 2026 at 4:16 pm by Kate O'Hare

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‘The Chosen’ S6 Trailer: The Passion Gets Very Real 2026-10-16T16:16:06-08:00 Kate O'Hare

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Today, Oct. 15, Prime Video released the official Season 6 trailer for The Chosen, which centers on the Passion narratives: the accounts of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus (Jonathan Roumie).

Not many people watching the show are worried about spoilers, but just because they know the story doesn’t necessarily mean that they know the story.

More on that in a second, and what it has to do with a Reluctant Messiah, The Passion of the Christ, and what they have to do with The Chosen, but first, the trailer:

Reading a Story vs. Living a Story

Back in 1977, author Richard Bach, best known for the allegorical 1970 fable Jonathan Livingston Seagull, released another book, called Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah.

In it, a barnstorming pilot named Richard (a bit of autobiography, there) crisscrossing the Midwest, selling rides in his plane, encounters Donald Shimoda, a mechanic and self-described messiah.

They go on a philosophical adventure, heavily laced with Gnosticism and concepts from self-empowerment ideas and New Age spirituality.

It is not a particularly Christian, especially not Catholic, view of life and eternity.

But, it does contain odd nuggets of wisdom that have stuck with me. One bit, told in service of a pre-The Matrix view of reality, says:

“You can hold a reel of film in your hands,” he said, “and it’s all finished and complete — beginning, middle, end are all there that same second. The film exists beyond the time that it records, and if you know what the movie is, you know generally what’s going to happen. But in order to get caught up and swept away in it, you have to put it in a projector and let it go through the lens minute by minute… any illusion requires space and time to be experienced.”

In a storytelling context, just because you’ve heard spoilers or seen a trailer for a movie or a TV show, or you’ve read a review of a book, or the CliffsNotes, or somebody told you about it, you have not yet experienced the movie, TV show or book in real time.

You know about it, but you don’t know it.

This passage came to me when I was sitting in a theater in 2004, watching The Passion of the Christ.

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The Woman Behind Me at The Passion

Mind you, I was watching The Passion on the Westside of Los Angeles, an area of the city not renowed for overt Christian piety. And this was Feb. 29, a few days after the film’s Feb. 25 release, so word of it was already out in the media.

In particular, there was one woman behind me who was sobbing and wailing, as if she was at the foot of the Cross, seeing it all happen.

And, in a sense, she was, as one of the most celebrated and criticized aspects of director Mel Gibson’s film was its bloody brutality, and its unflinching (some would say, excessive) fixation on Christ’s bodily suffering. This is a very Catholic thing, but not necessarily a thing among all other Christians.

With the quote from Bach’s book at the back of my mind, I began to formulate a theory. It may have nothing to do with that woman, about whom I knew nothing, but it’s something I’ve thought of since.

The Film Incarnation of the Incarnation

If you’re a self-proclaimed Bible Christian, and the center of your belief is sola scriptura, then you’ve definitely read, if not memorized, the Passion narratives in the Gospels. You may be able to recite them, word for word.

What Gibson did was take those words on a page and, in the great tradition of medieval Catholic Passion Plays, brought them to life on film, but this time in stark, graphic reality.

And unlike most previous film depictions, Gibson had no mercy on the audience, who witnessed every bit of Christ’s (Jim Caviezel) suffering (and Caviezel suffered for real, as well).

For even those viewers that knew the story, Gibson forced them to live it, frame by frame. And there’s a real, visceral value in that.

The Reality of the Cross

Whatever you think of Gibson’s lifestyle or his idiosyncratic personal view of the Faith, this was a very Catholic thing to do.

After all, during Lent, many Catholics do the Stations of the Cross, walking, one step at time, through Christ’s journey to Calvary.

There are no gaping wounds, howling women, or sadistic Roman soldiers, but it is a somber, psychological journey through the Passion, Station by Station.

Then, during Holy Week itself, Catholic tradition doesn’t skip from the triumph of Palm Sunday to the triumph of Easter Sunday.

Instead, it sits deep into the long afternoon of Good Friday, empties its tabernacles, allows the haunting absence of Holy Saturday, and then bursts back into life during the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday.

Our Crucifixes aren’t bare Crosses, for a reason. You don’t get to Easter Sunday without Good Friday.

I wonder how many non-Catholic and non-Orthodox Christians had never really envisioned what that journey looked like, in all its terror and blood and grief. And, for many of them, The Passion of the Christ may have been the first time it all became very, very real.

Perhaps one of them was the woman behind me.

The Chosen Meets the Passion

The genius of Dallas Jenkins’ TV-series version of the Gospels has been to slow it all down, to spend, so far, five seasons moving gradually through familiar events, but in a fresh way.

Though sometimes at the expense of fidelity to Scripture (such as losing the Transfiguration entirely, and all but bits of the Bread of Life Discourse), The Chosen has made the Gospels very human … and very real.

The series is less stiffly reverent and more overtly emotional than just about any previous TV adaptation of the Gospels. And from the trailer, it looks like its depiction of the Crucifixion may be nearly as unsparing as Gibson’s.

And I hope it is, for the sake of new audiences who might need a powerful reminder of Christ’s sacrifice.

Here’s a bit of Roumie discussing filming it, with Catholic actress Siobhan Fallon Hogan on her EWTN podcast, Catholics and Cappuccinos:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Siobhan Fallon Hogan (@siobhanfallonhogan)

Season 6 of The Chosen premieres Nov. 15 on Prime Video, but the actual Crucifixion will premiere as a standalone theatrical film on March 12, just ahead of Holy Week, which starts with Palm Sunday on March 21.

And Then, The Resurrection

Ironically, part one of Gibson’s long-awaited Passion sequel, The Resurrection of the Christ, comes out on May 6, and it promises to be as wild a ride as its predecessor, which returned to theaters in September.

EWTN commentator Raymond Arroyo sat down with Gibson at that time:

Buckle up, it’s going to be a Lent and Easter to remember.

BTW, watch this space for my conversations with Roumie, other cast members, and Jenkins, about how Season 6 is not the Apostles’ finest hour. Stay tuned.

Image: Prime Video

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The Passion of the Christ

About Kate O'Hare

Journalism, screenwriting, Seahawks ... I prefer stories with soul. Covering the intersection of entertainment, faith and pop culture. Writing movies in my spare time -- when not watching Seahawks football, that is. From the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, left my heart in Saratoga Springs. Currently based in Los Angeles, where it's always another day in paradise. No, I don't pick my NFL team by geography. You can read more about the author here.

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