Entertainment
Mel Gibson Officially Defends ‘The Passion of the Christ’ Sequels’ Most Controversial Change
The Passion of the Christ arrived with a hint of controversy to it more than two decades ago, but that did nothing to harm its box office prospects as the movie went on to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time for a generation. And now, Mel Gibson is finally preparing to continue the story — but he’s promising it won’t be the story you think you know.
Gibson has spent years developing The Resurrection of the Christ, a massive follow-up — it can’t truly be called a sequel — that eventually grew so large it had to be divided into two films. Now, Gibson has confirmed both installments are already in the can and almost good to go.
Speaking with Collider’s Steve Weintraub during a panel at Fan Expo Boston, Gibson revealed that The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One and Part Two were filmed simultaneously in Rome and are currently deep into post-production. When asked whether both films had been completed, Gibson confirmed that principal photography is finished and teased just how unusual his approach to the Resurrection will be.
“Yeah, I shot them both in Rome and together at the same time. So now I’m in post-production. I’m editing and doing visual effects. It’s pretty crazy. I don’t think it’s anything anyone would expect.”
The project wasn’t something Gibson originally planned immediately after The Passion of the Christ. Instead, the concept evolved for more than two decades, with Gibson spending close to a decade writing alongside Randall Wallace, who previously wrote Braveheart, as well as Gibson’s brother. He explained that simply depicting the Resurrection as a linear sequel wouldn’t adequately communicate the story he wants to tell.
“Well, I didn’t initially set out to make this part, but over about 23 years — well, 23 years before we started to make it — but it took almost 10 years to write it with Randall Wallace and then my brother, and we sat down and we rolled our sleeves up, and it was a very difficult subject because anybody gets murdered in public and then under his own strength and power comes back to life, and there’s not just a biblical account,” Gibson stated. “There are 17 separate secular historians that attest the same kind of thing. So it’s not a fairy tale, and the object is to make it believable and understandable at the same time, and it’s a very difficult thing to understand. So you can’t just tell the linear story that way. It’s like, okay, you have to juxtapose the actual event against many other actual events in order to grasp the significance of it, so it’s another jigsaw puzzle. It’s not linear.”
Why Is ‘The Resurrection of the Christ’ in Two Parts?
Gibson also confirmed the split was already built into the screenplay rather than something discovered during filming or editing. According to the filmmaker, the sprawling story naturally divided itself into two distinct pieces.
“It had it in the script, but it had a natural breaking point. There’s Part One and Part Two, and they’re distinct. I think they stand alone as individual pieces, but they do complete one another. So that’s good.”
Perhaps the biggest and most divisive difference from The Passion of the Christ will be immediately noticeable. While Gibson’s 2004 film was performed primarily in Aramaic and Latin, both Resurrection installments will be in English because of the complexity of the material.
“I think you can afford to do that sometimes,” said Gibson. “Sometimes you can’t afford to do that, like the Resurrection films, Parts One and Two. They’re both in English because the subject matter and just the theological download you have to go through is so complex that I don’t think people would like to have to read it in subtitles in a foreign language. You want to be able to digest it straight away. So I tailored the material to fit the audience, and I think having it in the vernacular would be better for it.”
Gibson later revealed just how enormous the production became, explaining that practical sets were constructed for Jerusalem, Damascus, Rome, Egypt and the desert before being dismantled once filming wrapped. “We deconstructed the sets on the Resurrection films one and two. Those sets you will never, ever in this industry see sets built like that ever again… It was Jerusalem, it was Damascus, it was Rome, it was out in the desert, it was Egypt, it was the whole thing, and massive sets built by the man who did the sets on The Passion, Francesco Frigeri, and he’s a master. He’s a maestro of this company, so he built these sets, and they were magnificent.”
The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One and Part Two are currently in post-production.
- Release Date
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March 26, 2027
- Writers
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Randall Wallace, Donal Gibson
- Producers
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Jim Caviezel
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