‘The Chosen’ Team Previews The Last Supper & Jesus Like You’ve Never Seen Before in Season 5

This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s The Chosen: Special Easter Issue. For a deep-dive into the wildly popular series and its upcoming fifth season, pick up a copy of the issue available on newsstands and order online here.

There are only 15 days left of filming on Season 5 of The Chosen, the Bible-based historical drama that has shaken up how people from around the globe, and from all types of religions, perceive Jesus and His time on Earth. And from the air-conditioned soundstage that houses the all-new Season 5 sets in Midlothian, Texas, the cast is humming with excitement at what’s still to come. It’s Wednesday, and on Friday, they’ll be entering the upper room to shoot the Last Supper, the most legendary meal in history.

It’s such an important moment that the Holy Week–centered season, which begins a four-week, eight-episode rollout in theaters on March 28, is being called The Chosen: Last Supper. Deliberate thought and heart will be put into each precious shot of the dinner. “I think we were all a little nervous about [constructing the upper room],” admits production designer James R. Cunningham during the set tour. “Everybody knows what the Last Supper is, no matter what religion you come from.”

But series creator Dallas Jenkins intends to break your preconceived notions on the major meal. “Typically when [anyone] thinks of the Last Supper, they think of da Vinci’s painting, and it’s a bunch of white guys eating leavened bread all on one side of a table. None of that is accurate,” Jenkins explains to the group of journalists gathered in a scenic garden atrium constructed for Season 5. “This was an intimate moment. There’s a lot of tradition, a lot of routine, and the Jewishness of that moment is very important.”

At that point in time, the disciples still don’t understand what is about to happen to Jesus (Jonathan Roumie), and they each have a different idea of what the Messiah is trying to impart to them about His impending Crucifixion. We know from the Bible that they won’t fully understand Jesus’ foreshadowing until after His Resurrection. “It was 13 people in a room dealing with pain, surrender, sadness, hope, and betrayal all at once — and we’re going to take our time with [that],” Jenkins continues. “We’re taking this down from [da Vinci’s] painting, and it’s going to be about 13 human beings who are really going through every range of emotion.”

But before they reach that upper room, they must first enter the Holy City of Jerusalem on what is now called Palm Sunday. The triumphal entry will be an exuberant celebration, as Jesus humbly rides a donkey through the Golden Gate, with his disciples trailing behind. Over 600 fans traveled to be background extras for the moment, which took up the first three weeks of shooting in Utah. And while the show has incorporated a massive crowd of fans into large-scale scenes before (the Sermon on the Mount and the feeding of the 5,000), this was on another level for the show’s crew, due to the length of time the extras stuck around.

“Walking in, I wasn’t aware of the jubilation that would be surrounding us,” says Noah James, who plays dedicated disciple Andrew, of shooting the entrance. It’s before 9am, and we’re sitting on the decadent set that serves as Pontius Pilate’s (Andrew James Allen) quarters. James’ face lights up at the memory of filming it in the spring. “I was just really moved, and it was an incredible way to start the season.” Later, Reza Diako, who plays disciple Philip, relates that the moment “felt like when the Backstreet Boys and One Direction were touring during their prime, but a 1st A.D. version, with leaves flying in the air.”

“Being surrounded by so many people, you feel the air buzzing” adds Shahar Isaac, who plays disciple leader Simon Peter. “Everywhere you look, you see this wave of attention. It was palpable. You could really feel the tension in the air.” And though the moment is a happy one, that tension is very present, confirms Elizabeth Tabish (Mary Magdalene), who points out to us that “this is the beginning of the end.”

Indeed, Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem kick-starts Holy Week, the period of time outlined in the Bible to include tentpole moments like Jesus’ cleansing of the temple, Judas’ betrayal, the Last Supper, Jesus’ arrest, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Season 5 will conclude before the Crucifixion, which will be the focus of the sixth season, while the planned-out seventh installment covers the Resurrection and the days after. As usual, The Chosen will also deliver non-Bible scenes to fill in gaps in the timeline, like a failed sermon that Simon Peter gives, which has been teased for Season 5.

“One of my favorite songs is from Johnny Cash, ‘God’s Gonna Cut You Down,’” Jenkins says while discussing this season’s theme. “Obviously, Season 6, we know, is going to be devastating. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. But Season 5, before things start to turn, we get to see a Jesus that we haven’t explored a whole lot. We get to see Jesus stir some things up. We get to see Jesus topple down some of the structures and the people that are used to their power. And so that phrase, ‘God’s gonna cut you down,’ it’s not from Scripture, but I think it makes a nice theme for Season 5.”

As Cash croons “What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light,” we can’t help but agree. The powerful image of Jesus standing before the temple with a whip in His right hand was one of the first glimpses fans saw of this year’s episodes. Roumie worked with a Hollywood whip trainer to prepare for the cleansing of the temple scenes, which will see Jesus crack the whip and flip tables while reprimanding the Pharisees within. “You’re going to see some pretty amazing things that you’ve never really seen Jesus do before in this season,” admits Roumie during our solo interview on another part of the set. “There’s a lot that people haven’t seen [before onscreen] — the emotional sides of Jesus, the intensity of those emotions that nobody’s ever quite captured on film before, and it’s all biblically justified.”

For His followers, however, Jesus’ anger in the temple is terrifying. “It’s a shock for all the disciples,” says Tabish. “Something is not right. He’s almost baiting the Pharisees to punish Him. There’s this confusion of, ‘Does he want this to happen?’”

That’s the question on the perceptive Mary Magdalene’s mind, at least. She’s the first one Jesus healed in Episode 1, and she’ll be the one to discover the stone taken away from Jesus’ tomb on Resurrection day. As Jesus notes in Season 4, Mary has been “paying attention,” more than others. “Mary keeps seeing that Jesus is troubled,” Tabish says. “He’s a man of sorrows, and I think she’s catching on to [the idea that] things are not always as they seem. Everybody’s celebrating [during His entrance into Jerusalem], but what’s it going to look like in a week?”

Meanwhile, Apostle Judas (Luke Dimyan) will be incensed by Jesus’ latest move against the wealthy Pharisees. Says Jenkins: “We start to see at the end of Season 4, Judas is thinking, ‘Hey, we might actually have some good things going on, some unifying here.’ [But] Jesus is not here to unify. You can imagine the people who are hoping for unification in order to defeat the Romans, how that is going to affect them.”

Jesus’ actions in the temple trickle into every subsequent move made this season by all the major players who stand to oppose Him — Judas, self-righteous High Priest Caiaphas (Richard Fancy), Roman King Herod Antipas (Paul Ben-Victor), mysterious spy Atticus (Elijah Alexander) and even the troublemaking Pontius Pilate. “Pilate is responsible for the biggest indecision in the history of the world,” Jenkins says. “We want to show [viewers] why he would be undecided about [Jesus]. We spend some time in Pilate’s chambers and with his wife [Claudia, played by Sarah J. Bartholomew].”

Pilate and Claudia’s home, as well as Caiaphas’ — where Jesus’ trial takes place in the sixth season — were expanded for Season 5, and touring the newly decorated rooms serves as a reminder of how much still stands to change on The Chosen before this season’s harrowing conclusion.

In Season 4’s finale, Jesus tried again to prepare His followers for the next seven days: “No matter what happens this week, no matter what you see or feel or think or do, I want you to know that in this world, I loved you as My own. And I will love you till the end.”

That message should carry fans through the distressing moments ahead — that His love perseveres. And as if to drive the point firmly home, as we leave the set late in the afternoon, a rainbow appears in the Texas sky.

The Chosen, Season 5, Premieres in Theaters, Friday, March 28