How “The Chosen” Spurred a Golden Age of Christian Filmmaking
Key takeaways
- In Hollywood, success is increasingly driven by devoted fan bases rather than by widespread appeal.
- “The Chosen,” then in its second season, was already getting noticed, as much for its fund-raising as for its relatable depiction of Jesus and his followers.
- Fans who contributed at least a thousand dollars would have the chance to be an extra.
In Hollywood, success is increasingly driven by devoted fan bases rather than by widespread appeal. At Chosen Con, an attendee named Karla Cameron, who wears a pink shawl, poses with other enthusiasts.Photographs by Will Crooks for The New Yorker Save this story Save this story Save this story Save this story For years, Karla Cameron, a retired Dr Pepper executive in Georgia, taught Bible-study classes to teen-agers, a task that became more challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. She wanted to show videos to her students, but most of the Biblical movies she found had cheesy writing, bad acting, and costumes with visible zippers. One day, she learned about a new television program that told the story of Jesus and his disciples. It was called “The Chosen,” and blog posts praised the show for its authenticity and its humanity. That evening, Cameron and her husband put on the first episode. It was not at all what she had expected. Many of the actors were not white, and Jesus didn’t appear until the end of the episode. Instead, the focus was on a frantic and demon-possessed Mary Magdalene, played by Elizabeth Tabish; the show intimated that she’d been sexually assaulted by a Roman soldier. The first-century world felt, to Cameron, lived in and at times confounding. There was a lot of talk about arcane dietary laws, and no zippers to be found. Cameron and her husband watched for hours. Afterward, they got out their Bibles and talked about their faith late into the night.
In the course of 2021, “The Chosen” became a kind of companion for Cameron. Her daughter, who had been crazy about “Game of Thrones,” had begged to go to Iceland to visit filming locations. Now Cameron understood the lure of fandom. She recruited the members of her Tuesday-evening church meeting to watch the show, and led discussions after. She joined Facebook groups where people matched plot points to Bible verses, and she posted a scriptural study guide for each episode. The show wasn’t yet available on any of the major streaming platforms—you had to watch it on a proprietary app—so she printed out cards with a QR code to help people find it.
“The Chosen,” then in its second season, was already getting noticed, as much for its fund-raising as for its relatable depiction of Jesus and his followers. Thousands of supporters had contributed roughly ten million dollars to produce the first season, making it the biggest crowdfunded television project ever. The show’s creator, director, co-writer, and executive producer, Dallas Jenkins, regularly appealed to fans on live streams, reminding them that the program wouldn’t exist without their support. By 2021, he was collecting a million dollars, on average, from each live stream.