The time for ultra-violent Jesus stuff is back again! Thank you, Mel Gibson. A sequel to Gibson’s 2004 box office juggernaut The Passion of the Christ has been in the works for over twenty years, and now Lionsgate has officially dated the two-part film, titled The Resurrection of the Christ, for Good Friday, March 26th 2027, and Ascension Day, Thursday, May 6th 2027.
I’m sure those dates are a coincidence and not a way to get faith-based groups ready to load up busloads of believers to theaters. They’d be stupid if they didn’t, considering The Passion of the Christ broke R-rated and faith-based movie records with $612M globally. Jim Caviezel is expected to return as Jesus, along with Monica Bellucci as Mary Magdalene.
This has been a long time coming, with much of the delay due to Gibson’s own behavior. Beyond the racism, sexism, and domestic abuse charges, Gibson has been accused of antisemitism by many Jewish groups for the portrayal of Jews in the movie. Gibson places the full brunt of the blame on Jews for Jesus’ crucifixion, and not the Roman soldiers.
So there’s a good chance The Resurrection of the Christ doesn’t live up to the high box office set by its predecessor. Gibson has somewhat resurrected his filmmaking career, but he’s still pretty toxic. While he directed the war movie Hacksaw Ridge to $180M and two Oscar wins, his latest movie Flight Risk was a dud. Plans for Gibson to direct Lethal Weapon 5 seem to have fallen through, too.
