Mel Gibson just gave a major update to his long-awaited sequel to his 2004 blockbuster The Passion of the Christ.
Speaking on Joe Rogan’s podcast Thursday, the actor-director says he plans to begin filming the sequel in 2026. The title: The Resurrection of the Christ.
“I’m hoping [to start filming] next year sometime,” Gibson said. “There’s a lot required because [the script is] an acid trip. I’ve never read anything like it. There’s some crazy stuff. In order to tell the story properly you have to start with the fall of the angels. You’re in another realm. You need to go Hell. You need to go to Sheol.”
Asked Rogan: “So you’re going to have Hell? You’re going to have Satan?”
Gibson nodded. “You got to have his origin. I have ideas about how to do that and how to evoke things about to depict that. I’ve been thinking about that for a long time. It’s going to require a lot of planning. I’m not sure I can pull it off. It’s super ambitious, but I’m going to take a crack at it … It’s about trying to find a way in that’s not cheesy or obvious. It’s almost like a magic trick. [The story] goes from the fall of the angels to the death of the last apostle.”
The director said original Passion star Jim Caviezel will once again play Jesus, though he might require some de-aging CGI help as it’s been two decades since the original film but only three days are supposed to have passed in the story.
Gibson noted he’s been working on the script for seven years along with his brother Donal and Braveheart writer Randall Wallace. He suggested the dialogue will likely be in English instead of Aramaic or Hebrew as this story’s concepts are rather difficult to understand and having actors speak in another language might be a step too far.
Gibson added that he personally believes the resurrection actually happened. “Every single one of those apostles died rather than renounce their belief, and nobody dies for a lie,” he said. But he also recognized that the resurrection is the toughest part of Christ’s story for most people to believe. “Who gets back up three days later after he gets murdered? Buddha didn’t do that shit.”
Gibson also said that part of his faith in the Bible stems from his beliefs helping him get sober. The actor had a public fall from grace after a drunk driving arrest back in 2006, during which he was recorded making anti-semitic comments.
“Stuff happens in your own life … the results you get from appealing to a higher power other than yourself,” Gibson said. “I don’t think its any secret that I’m flawed in my nature — having been born an alcoholic. I did drugs, I did alcohol. And there was nothing that could stop me from doing that. That I was able to appeal to something beyond myself helped me stop doing that. For me, that was a miracle.”
English (US) ·