In this month's faith & family news, the news that millions have been waiting for ... fresh from the inbox:
The Chosen Announces a Streaming Premiere for Season 4
The creators of the series The Chosen are pleased to announce that Season 4 will be available to the public for streaming on Sunday, June 2, at 7 p.m. ET.
As always, each episode will launch with global livestreams on social media and The Chosen app. Following each livestream, Season 4 episodes will be available exclusively in The Chosen app before coming to other viewing platforms later this year.
Episode one of Season 4 will be available for streaming beginning on Sunday, June 2. The second episode will be available on the following Thursday, June 6 at 8:30 p.m. ET, with ensuing episodes released on Sundays at 7 p.m. ET and Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET over the course of four weeks.
“The wait is finally over. The response from those who've seen Season 4 in theaters was that this is our best season, so I can't wait to deliver these episodes free and easy to the world,” said Dallas Jenkins, creator, producer, director, and writer of the international hit series The Chosen.
The Chosen is a groundbreaking historical drama based on the life of Jesus, seen through the eyes of those who knew him.
Clashing kingdoms. Rival rulers. The enemies of Jesus close in while His followers struggle to keep up, leaving Him to carry the burden alone. Threatened by the reality of Jesus’ growing influence, religious leaders do the unthinkable — ally with their Roman oppressors.
As the seeds of betrayal are planted and opposition to Jesus’ message turns violent, He’s left with no alternative but demand his followers rise up.
The season was first released in theaters in 31 territories around the globe, the series’ most successful theatrical run ever.
“We wanted to offer fans a chance to see it on the big screen together in theaters,” Jenkins said. “But I've maintained the show will always ultimately be available free and easy, and we're now ready for our livestreams, which are going to be bonkers this year.”
Viewers can watch the series for free in The Chosen app, available for download on streaming players or devices including Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, iOS, and Android.
Additional streaming and broadcast options for Season 4 viewing will be announced soon.
New, from Dallas Jenkins:
UPDATE 6/7: The series is also airing on cablenet BYUtv and streaming via the channel's app and website. From the inbox: We are happy to announce that BYUtv is the ONLY streaming service and broadcast network streaming season 4 of “The Chosen” 24 hours after the “The Chosen” app, starting on Monday, June 3 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, with linear broadcasts airing each succeeding Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.
Also, per Deadline, The CW has picked up Season 4 as well. The broadcast network has already aired the first three seasons of the show. No announcement yet when the show will start airing on The CW. More on how all that came about in my interview with The CW head Brad Schwartz. Click here for that.
This is very welcome news here at Family Theater Productions. FTP's Head of Production, Father David Guffey, C.S.C., is a longtime consultant on The Chosen, and a participant in the show's Bible Roundtables (season 4 of which we hope will be released soon).
"I can't wait to share The Chosen with all my friends who love the show," says Father Guffey. "This is such a powerful season."
Father Guffey attended the first ChosenCon, and will attend the next fan convention, taking place Sept. 20-21 in Orlando, Florida.
On May 21, Jenkins did a press conference with faith-based journalists. Obviously, he couldn't yet announce the streaming premiere date, but he did give an update on Season 5, currently filming.
So I'm also just returned from Utah. The first 26 days of filming were in Utah. We had 600 extras every day for three weeks, and we were able to film some of the most famous moments in Scripture.
Season five covers Holy Week. And Holy Week includes the triumphal entry. It includes Jesus turning over the tables. It includes Jesus arguing with Pharisees in the temple. And of course, we're also exploring what Holy Week meant for the disciples and the followers and enemies of Jesus in real time.
We have the benefit of looking back on Holy Week and we see the moves, we see how it started with all this triumph and by the end of it everyone had turned. There's something really exciting and awful about showing that transition and as we, I think pride ourselves on, we like to take our time. We don't just go from Bible verse to Bible verse, incident to incident.
We show the in-between, we show Jesus and the disciples, or at least we show the disciples working this out in their heads and not being able to comprehend what we're able to comprehend today.
And it's been a really impactful first several weeks of filming. Multiple times we had hundreds of extras and after the scene was completed, coming up to me with tears in their eyes, having a first row seat to some exciting moments and some painful moments.
And it's really shaping up to be our most impactful season yet. So hopefully the rest of the filming will be the same. We've got two thirds of our filming left and that's going to be here in Texas.
Here's the original Season 4 trailer:
Image: The Chosen
Kate O’Hare, a longtime entertainment journalist, is Social Media Content Manager at Family Theater Productions.
Recent posts:
'Wildcat,' Flannery O'Connor and the Holy Spirit
'IF': Cute, Feel-Good Tale Explores Fatherhood and Imagination
Spouses' Night In: Dames, Planes, Thieves, Mail, and Marriage
'Dante: Inferno to Paradise': PBS Does Justice to a Catholic Classic
Keep up with Family Theater Productions at our website, and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
