‘The Chosen’: An Oral History of the Now-Worldwide Phenomenon

The Chosen‘s creator Dallas Jenkins never set out to make this series. After some setbacks in his professional life, the director and writer shot a short film for his church’s Christmas Eve service called The Shepherd, from the point of view of the shepherds present at Jesus’ birth. The film was a small production, and Jenkins returned to it after making a flop film that could have ended his career. Thankfully, it didn’t.

In the Beginning…

Dallas Jenkins: The Chosen was born out of failure. I [directed] a feature film, The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, that got released nationally [in January 2017], and it completely bombed at the box office. I was left with a very uncertain future as a filmmaker. Absolutely, if that movie would’ve succeeded, there’d be no Chosen. I dusted off a short film that I had written about a year and a half earlier, about the birth of Christ from the perspective of the shepherds. We filmed [The Shepherd] on my friend’s farm in Illinois, 20 minutes from my house.

After The Shepherd was finished, Jenkins didn’t shop it around to network executives as he had with previous projects. Instead, the film made the rounds online. The right people began to take notice, including a studio exec who would wind up working on the show…eventually.

Katherine Warnock, vice president of original content at The Chosen: People ask Dallas all the time, “Did you know this was going to be a global phenomenon?” Of course, Dallas says, “No, I had no idea.” But I get to say, “Yes, I did!” because the pilot episode came across my desk at MGM [where Warnock was then senior director of content]. I immediately emailed Mark Burnett and Roma Downey [producers known for creating dramas like 2013’s The Bible] and I said, “You have to acquire this. This is going to take over the world.” I literally said that. We didn’t land it, but then God made a way.

Jenkins: The short film got in the hands of a small streaming platform [VidAngel]. They heard my idea for the show and decided they’d love to do it. They said, “We want to raise the money through crowdfunding.” At that point, I thought, “I really have nothing to lose, and I’m coming off of this failure, so we’ll see what happens.” [The Shepherd] ended up going viral, and at the end of [the video], I gave people the opportunity to invest, not donate. More than 16,000 people around the world invested over $10 million for Season 1.

Jonathan Roumie (Jesus): My history with Dallas Jenkins goes back almost 10 years. I did a [different] short film with him called The Two Thieves. I originally auditioned for the penitent thief, and two days later, I got asked to read for the role of Jesus. I thought, “Aw, man, Jesus only has like five lines.”

Jenkins: Ten seconds into his audition for Jesus [in The Two Thieves], I thought, “That is one of the best portrayals of Jesus I’ve ever seen.” He combines masculinity with gentleness. We filmed [the project] in a rock quarry in Chicago. It was freezing while [Roumie] was up on the cross. He was literally shaking and could barely think, could barely talk. It actually helped the scene, because he was portraying His death. So then we started doing short films and vignettes over the next few years, every time Good Friday or Easter would come around. And then there came a chance to do The Chosen.

After raising enough money to shoot the first few episodes of the series, it was time to figure out the show’s title, cast and sets and, eventually, to get the cameras rolling.

Jenkins: A guy on our marketing team and I realized that “The Chosen” refers to three different things that are all relevant for the show. It refers to Jesus as the Chosen One, to the Jews as God’s chosen people, and to those Jesus chose to follow Him. We just thought, “Man, this title seems to cover a lot of ground in two words,” so it felt perfect.

Roumie: Dallas called to say, “Hey, we’re doing a TV series, four episodes, it’s crowdfunded, probably not going to go anywhere.… You want to put the sandals back on?” I said, “I need a job, so heck, yeah.”

Jenkins: [Roumie] was the first person cast. We weren’t bound by trying to find celebrities but by who was best for the role, and we wanted to make sure we were faithful ethnically, and not just trying to satisfy some studio’s requirements for a star. The story is the star.

Elizabeth Tabish (Mary Magdalene): It was a crowdfunded web series [shooting] in the middle of nowhere, Texas. The pressure was not quite on, but when I first read the script for the audition, I was just blown away by the writing. Faith-based media doesn’t have the best rap, and there was just nothing cheesy about any of it. It seemed like a historical drama that wasn’t preachy.

Paras Patel (Matthew): I found out I got the part a week before I started the show. I was not the first choice to portray Matthew. Dallas’ wife, Amanda, had a dream and felt that I would be a better fit based on a callback audition I had where my camera glitched and it froze with me looking sideways [for the entire audition]. I liked that there was actually no “right” way to play Matthew [from] the beginning. It was a collaborative effort to just tell the story of the character through creative license. We built him from the ground up.

Jenkins: We film the majority of our seasons on a Salvation Army property in Midlothian, Texas. It’s about 40 minutes outside of Dallas. We have access to several hundred acres. We’ve built a 1st-century set, and then we film about a third of our season on a huge Jerusalem set in Goshen, Utah.

Amber Shana Williams (Tamar): We’re always in awe at the artistic genius that [production designer] James R. Cunningham brings to the show and how everything feels so real. I mean, all those candles burning — we’re choking on that smoke; that is authentic. 

Noah James (Andrew): It is such a gift working on the sets that we do. People think actors are weird, and, yeah, we obviously are, but feeling the fabrics and wood and bricks, seeing the Roman signposts — sometimes all it takes is looking around, and you can get exactly what you need for a scene.

Williams: I love being on those sets. I’m always taking pictures of all of the gorgeous details. The most minute things that you wouldn’t even consider have some of the greatest details. It’s just marvelous.

Tabish: The first four episodes were filmed, and then we waited to see a response. There was some struggle to find where we were going to be [shooting], but having that set in Midlothian has been pretty pivotal, knowing that we have a place to continue this story.

Jesus Walks Into a Bar…

The first episode introduced future disciples like awkward Matthew, nervous Andrew, and brash Simon (Shahar Isaac), but the primary focus was the suffering, demon-possessed Mary Magdalene (Tabish). After approaching her in Capernaum’s local bar, Jesus casts out her demons and heals her. But we don’t see Him until the pivotal final five minutes. Wait, what?

Tabish: To start a show about Jesus with the story of Mary Magdalene just seemed very new and very cool, honestly.

Jenkins: We knew it was risky [waiting until the end of the episode to reveal Him], but we treated it like a real show as opposed to a Bible project. We knew that last scene had to deliver, or people wouldn’t keep tuning in. It’s similar to This Is Us, where you watch the first episode and when it all connects at the end, it creates a massive moment and you’re like, “OK, I’m in.”

Tabish: That last scene in Episode 1, there was a bit of pressure. “If this doesn’t work, then it ruins the rest of the show.” It was a freezing night, and I was so worried that I wasn’t performing well. I look back and still don’t think I did, honestly. But I think that’s a testament to the strength of the show overall, of the directing, of the editing, of the music, of the cinematography, of the other actors, where it still was a really powerful moment in the show. It’s written so well that you have to work hard to mess it up as an actor.

Roumie: It continues to be one of my favorite scenes, because it’s such an ironic, dramatic introduction to the character. Jesus in a bar sounds like the beginning of a joke. [Laughs] We had that sense when we were filming that this is going to be really special.

Jenkins: When we first started seeing the footage, performances, cinematography, and then [hearing] the music, it’s like what they say, the sum was so much better than the parts.

Season 1 included many of Jesus’ miracles, like filling Simon’s boat with fish and, in the fifth episode, “The Wedding Gift,” turning water to wine. Jenkins knew he had the chance to do something unique.

Jenkins: You’ve never seen why Jesus changed the water to wine [onscreen]. You see that in the Scripture, but it’s one or two [Bible] verses, and so we unpack that. In that same episode, you see Jesus dancing with His friends, laughing at their jokes. All of those things you’ve never seen portrayed in this way.

Warnock: The goal was to bring Jesus down from the gorgeous stained-glass windows and present him as a friend.

What’s the Buzz?

Season 1 was released in 2019, and the fanbase grew, but viewership didn’t really explode until the show was free to stream.

Tabish: It was so wonderful to have this immediate feedback of feeling like we’re on the right track of telling something that feels true to people and honest.

James: Lots of fans have shared with me that they connect with Andrew’s anxiety. I feel really honored to portray that struggle.

Williams: There is an appreciation for the representation that Tamar brings to the show. I know people who look like me don’t see themselves reflected in the stories of this time period.

Warnock: You never get tired of hearing “This show saved my life.”

Jenkins: When COVID hit, people were having a hard time finding it and didn’t want to pay for it, so [we released Season 1] totally free, with payment optional.

James: People were really starting to find the show, and while we were all going through that collective shutdown and paradigm shift, I kept receiving messages that our show was helping people through it.

Patel: I began to realize something was happening through my social media. I remember texting Dallas, “Is this happening to you right now?” His response was casual: “Yeah, the show is going viral.”

Jenkins: We also had an eight-night livestream on YouTube. Instantly, our income quadrupled, and the next night it quintupled, and the word of mouth went crazy. We had enough [funding] to do Season 2.

Patel: I remember being surprised, because the show had been released in 2019 and it didn’t get off to a big start — or any start — so to have it happen a few months later had me a little shocked. But in hindsight, seeing the journey of our show from the beginning to where we are now, I often just say, “Well, it’s The Chosen — get used to different.”

“The Frozen Chosen”

With more eyeballs than ever on The Chosen, production on Season 2 began in Texas. As Jesus collected more disciples, the show found more followers. For the build-up to the epic Sermon on the Mount (which spanned the Season 2 finale and the Season 3 opener), 2,000 extras — fans — huddled in freezing temps for a multi-day shoot.

Warnock: My favorite scene of all time was [early] in Season 2 [Episode 3, “Matthew 4:24”] when Jesus has been healing all day and at the very end [of the episode], He rolls in exhausted. That hit me incredibly hard. The human side of Jesus, what toll that would’ve taken on Him — that wrecked me.

Patel: I loved the moment in Season 2 when Matthew is trying to get Thomas and Nathanael’s [Joey Vahedi and Austin Reed Alleman] attention when he is hiding from a Pharisee in a marketplace. I love getting the chance to do physical comedy when I can, and this moment still makes me laugh out loud.

Tabish: I was at the Sermon on the Mount [filming], and it was freezing, but to look out on the sea of people who are all so excited
to be there and nobody’s complaining, no one’s freaking out.

Roumie: We had [2,000] people, now referred to as “the Frozen Chosen,” who sat there patiently, joyfully, for hours while we shot the scene. I’d never at that point worked in front of that many people as an actor. It was like something out of a Cecil B. DeMille film, hearkening back to old Hollywood.

Patel: In filming the Beatitudes with Jonathan [in the finale], I choked up every time. I remember telling Jonathan about it, and he responded saying, “I thought you were just really cold,” because it was freezing.

Roumie: And we’ve got [Christian worship artist] Phil Wickham playing a concert in the background [when cameras weren’t rolling] and freezing along with everybody else.

Williams: Just the very fact that these fans put their heart and soul — and pocketbook — into coming all the way out to Texas from all over the planet to be a part of the show, that’s when I really saw the effect it was having on the audience.

Roumie: It was one of those moments where we knew there was going to be such a payoff [onscreen].

Walking on Water

After Season 2 premiered in April 2021, The Chosen began airing on several streaming outlets, including Netflix and Prime Video, between 2021 and 2022. In December 2021, the first Christmas special, The Messengers, was released in theaters and grossed more than $13.7 million. Things looked bright for the show’s third season, which included both intimate moments (Andrew visits John the Baptizer in jail) and bigger spectacles (the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus walking on water). Shooting with the now close-knit cast was just as fun as ever.

Jenkins: Every year [cowriters Ryan Swanson and Tyler Thompson] and I go to Oregon. There’s a generous family that puts us in a cottage and provides for our food, and we just get away for three or four days and plot out the season. We have to make sure we are really doing honor to the original story.

James: I think people would be really surprised how long it takes to film a complete sequence. Sometimes all day or multiple days, and those are the days that really require focus and conservation of energy. When we filmed [Season 3, Episode 1] in Herod’s dungeon with John the Baptizer [David Amito], Joanna [Amy Bailey], and I, that was the whole day. So we spent the first half capturing John the Baptizer’s coverage, and then we “flipped the world” around and captured ours, and you want to be as present as possible for your scene partners while not burning out before it’s your turn. Those are the most rewarding days, because it feels like you truly transport yourself for hours in an attempt to be as authentic as possible. Even when you have a break, there’s a small fire inside of you burning for the scene.

Roumie: The feeding of the 5,000 was the extreme opposite temperature [from the Sermon on the Mount], so it was 110 degrees. People were passing out, but everybody was fine. We just have the best fans in the world.

James: And then of course there are times [while shooting] when we’ve completely lost our minds and are singing about drinking our pickle-brine shots because it’s one million degrees and we need electrolytes and we don’t even know what day it is.

Patel: The night shoots bring out some special qualities in us because we are so delirious.

Tabish: There is a lot of joking around on set, but if someone’s really trying to stay in the scene, I feel like the cast is intuitive enough
to recognize that and kind of protect that space to make sure everyone’s able to perform the best that they can. But sometimes it’s really hard, because this cast is really funny. Jordan Walker Ross [Little James] is hilarious. George [H. Xanthis, who plays John] is super funny. Jonathan is very, very funny. Amber and I get the giggles sometimes, and Paras and I get the giggles all the time.

Jenkins: I was not planning on shooting the walking on the water, because I didn’t think we could pull it off. But it became a necessary part to this journey, and some of the things that Jesus was saying were going to culminate in this experience on the water. Our visual effects team felt like we finally had the resources to do it. Obviously, there’s CGI. Spoiler alert: Jonathan Roumie can’t actually walk on water!

Roumie: To me, [walking on water] was a lot of fun. It was challenging, but we were in a water tank in Louisiana, and we shot it at a time of the year when it was pretty agreeable and the water wasn’t that cold. It was tricky [though], and we had a long day because we only had one day to get that entire scene.

Jenkins: That might be one of the most emotionally impactful scenes we’ve ever done. And so, when I finally saw — we have video on our Behind the Scenes channel — the music is done, the visual effects are done, the color is done, it was overwhelming. I was weeping.

This is an abbreviated excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s The Chosen special issue. The read the whole article, pick up your own copy of the issue available on newsstands and for order online now at TheChosenMag.com

The Chosen, Season 4 Premieres Thursday, February 1, in Theaters