By Shawn Smith
When Dallas Jenkins’ series THE CHOSEN started to take off, his father, Jerry B. Jenkins, coauthor of the bestselling Left Behind series, had some advice to pass on to his son regarding his newfound success.
“[I told him] ‘you need to not get distracted by the success of this thing.’ Who knows, maybe in our 20s, we would’ve been pretty proud of ourselves, or thought we had something to do with it,” Jerry said, pointing out that they both found success in their mid 40s. “But by that age, you realize this is such a God thing that you just sort of get out of the way and hang on for dear life.”
When ChurchLeaders asked Dallas what he learned from his father’s success, he echoed that advice, saying that it “humbled” his dad.
Dallas said, “It brought him closer to God. It made him realize, ‘I’m not this good, only God could do something like this.’”
“So that was a good precursor for I think what we’re experiencing at THE CHOSEN,” he added.
While Jerry helped support Dallas financially earlier in his career, “THE CHOSEN was really his own,” he told Leah Klett of The Christian Post.
“And I’ve always thought that everything Dallas did was brilliant, but this time I was right, but this was all his own,” Jerry jested.
“I was just a supportive dad,” the author added.
“It’s kind of amazing that this sort of lightning strikes the same family twice,” Jerry said of the impact of his son’s show.
Eventually the elder Jenkins, who has written over 200 books from sports biographies to children’s books, including The Red Rock Mysteries, saw an opportunity to put THE CHOSEN series in novel form.
“I said, ‘Can I play too?’ And [Dallas] was happy to let me write a novel for each season,” he told Klett.
The 75-year-old admitted that writing a novel from a TV series brings its own challenges, especially when usually the reverse is true where a novel gets adapted for big or small screens.
Related: How the Lord Used Dallas Jenkins’ Hollywood ‘Failure’ for Good
“I found that I was mirroring everything that was on the screen. I didn’t want people to go, ‘Wait a minute. That didn’t happen,’” Jenkins said, “[Dallas and team] said, ‘We want you in this so you can add value.’ That really freed me up.”
This allowed him to add more details such as inner dialogue or more dialogue between characters.
His latest adaptation, The Chosen: Not My Will, follows along with the fifth season of the Bible series, as it portrays the last days of Jesus’ ministry including Holy Week.
As Dallas attempts to balance “plausible imaginations” while respecting the inerrancy of God’s word with THE CHOSEN, Jerry aims to do the same.
“It’s plausible to put fictitious characters in the way of these actual events and say, ‘This is what it could look like. What if it was you? What if it was me?” the Michigan native explained.
Filming of the sixth season of THE CHOSEN has begun. While cast and crew are in good spirits from the looks of a recent behind the scenes clip, many on set say that there is also a heaviness on set as the upcoming season will cover the crucifixion of Christ.
“I don’t even know if it’s bitter sweet,” Elizabeth Tabish (Mary Magdeline) admitted. “I think it’s just bitter right now, and knowing that we have to film this season is gonna be so brutal.”
“Obviously it’s heavier, but we treat it the same way. We’re always looking for the truth, looking for the humanity, looking for the authenticity,” Dallas said. “Well, it’s still emotional at times… but I still got a job to do, but sometimes God’s gonna hit you, regardless of whether you’re ready for Him.”
We’ll see if lightning keeps hitting as season 6 finale is set to be released March 2027, with episodes leading up to the finale yet to be announced.
Read Next: We Finally Know When THE CHOSEN Season 5 Will Start Streaming
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
- Content: +1Share:
- Content: +1