Mel Gibson says his long-awaited sequel to “The Passion of the Christ” will venture into territory the four Gospels never fully describe, filling narrative gaps he argues scripture itself acknowledges.
“If you look at the synoptic Gospels — and they are synoptic, which means they don’t tell you everything,” Gibson told The Christian Post this week, pointing to a line in the Gospel of John suggesting far more happened in Jesus’s life than any text could record. Rather than treating those silences as limits, Gibson said he used them as room to imagine what might have occurred, while staying within the bounds of traditional Christian teaching. That includes depicting realms he has described as the “Hell of the just” and the biblical “firmament,” and beginning the story earlier than audiences might expect. “I think in order to really tell the story properly you have to really start with the fall of the angels,” Gibson said, describing a script he has previously called “an acid trip.”
The film, officially titled “The Resurrection of the Christ,” has been split into two parts, with Jaakko Ohtonen and Mariela Garriga stepping into the roles of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, previously played by Jim Caviezel and Monica Bellucci. Production wrapped this year after 134 days of shooting across Rome, Bari, Ginosa, Craco, Brindisi and Matera, the same region where the 2004 original was filmed. Lionsgate has pushed the release dates back, with Part One now due May 6, 2027, and Part Two following in May 2028.
Gibson’s comments arrive as “The Passion of the Christ” returns to U.S. theaters for a one-week run starting Sept. 10, timed to build anticipation for the sequel. The original grossed more than $610 million worldwide and became the highest-earning R-rated film of its era, despite drawing criticism from Jewish groups and scholars who argued its portrayal of Jesus’s persecutors leaned on antisemitic stereotypes.
The follow-up has already drawn its own scrutiny. Variety reported that Gibson has been consulting on set with Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a Vatican critic excommunicated in 2024 after rejecting the authority of the late Pope Francis, whom he had called a “servant of Satan.” Gibson publicly defended Viganò at the time of his excommunication. With the first installment still eight months from release, the film is shaping up as one of the most closely watched — and most theologically ambitious — entries in faith-based cinema in years.
