It’s been about two decades since The Passion of the Christ hit theaters in 2004. Now the epic biblical tale is set to receive a follow-up from returning director Mel Gibson. Production on the sequel is now expected to begin in 2026, and furthermore, Mel Gibson has revealed the new title for the Passion of the Christ follow-up – The Resurrection of the Christ.
Gibson discussed the highly-anticipated project while speaking on Joe Rogan’s podcast, as shared via Deadline. It’s clearly a major undertaking because Gibson revealed that the project was written by himself and his brother, Randall Wallace, during a period of seven years.
Here’s what Gibson shared:
“I’m hoping next year sometime. There’s a lot required because it’s an acid trip. I’ve never read anything like it,” Gibson shared regarding when he hopes to film the sequel.
“My brother and I and Randall all sort of congregated on this. So there’s some good heads put together, but there’s some crazy stuff,” Gibson added. “And I think in order to really tell the story properly you have to really start with the fall of the angels, which means you’re in another place, you’re in another realm. You need to go to hell. You need to go to Sheol.”
As those who’ve seen The Passion of the Christ know, that particular film told the events that led to the crucifixion of Jesus by the end of its story. Now the follow-up, which Gibson reveals will be titled The Resurrection of the Christ, will tackle Christ’s resurrection that took place three days later.
In order to do so, the “very ambitious” project is said to include “a few techniques” to make returning star Jim Caviezel, who will reprise his role as Jesus of Nazareth from The Passion of the Christ, look younger. These techniques are expecting to include digital de-aging due to the time between films. The narrative is also said to follow “the fall of the angels to the death of the last apostle.”
Ultimately, Mel Gibson acknowledges that The Resurrection of the Christ will be a massive undertaking and quite ambitious. Nonetheless, he’s eager to see if he can pull off making a sequel to The Passion of the Christ, which is still one of the most successful R-rated movies of all-time.
“It’s about finding the way in that’s not cheesy or too obvious,” he said. “I think I have ideas about how to do that and how to evoke things and emotions in people from the way you depict it and the way you shoot it. So I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. It’s not going to be easy and it’s going to require a lot of planning and I’m not wholly sure I can pull it off to tell you the truth, it’s super ambitious. But I’ll take a crack at it because that’s what you got to do, right, walk up to the plate, right?”
The Resurrection of the Christ is scheduled to begin production in 2026. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates regarding the project as we have them.