Dallas Jenkins Dishes on All Things ChosenCon
Movieguide® Contributor
THE CHOSEN creator Dallas Jenkins is opening up about what ChosenCon is all about.
“ChosenCon is our opportunity to thank the fans, the people who make this show happen, the people who watch it and tell us how it’s changed their lives,” Jenkins explained. “The people who have given and sacrificed, the people who have spread the word about the show, the people who are devoted and whose lives have been changed by it. And we wanna say, ‘Thank you for helping us get here.’”
“So it’s also a little bit selfish though, because when we get here, this fuels us. Their expressions of passion, their expressions of thanks, their tears, all of that makes us go, ‘You know what? The pain that we went through shooting this through the season, it’s all worth it. If they can do this, we can do this.’”
Jenkins’ favorite things about the event are surprising the audience of 5,000 people with “something new” and meeting all of them.
Movieguide® reported on the surprises he shared with fans:
“Nearly every time I encounter a viewer, they say something about wanting more Bible content from us. I always say we need to not get ahead of ourselves and remain focused, but now we’ve got a robust enough team to expand our efforts,” said Jenkins, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer at 5&2 Studios and Creator and Executive Producer of THE CHOSEN. “I’m very excited to bring our ‘Chosen way’ to more great stories from the Bible, and it’s awesome that we get to first announce it to the fans who helped get us here long before we were popular.”
Jenkins made the announcement at ChosenCon, a gathering of over 5,000 fans in Orlando on Sep. 20 – 21.
5&2 Studios currently has several projects underway: THE CHOSEN ADVENTURES, THE CHOSEN IN THE WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS, a 3-season series that covers Moses’ story, an 8-episode series for Joseph’s tale and a series that follows THE CHOSEN called ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
A favorite moment for Jenkins from this year’s ChosenCon was when a woman who had suddenly lost her husband told him that it was cathartic for her to watch Season 4 because, in the show, Thomas suddenly lost his love, Ramah.
“Jesus was standing there and didn’t say yes. He didn’t fix Ramah. He didn’t help Thomas in that moment,” Jenkins said about the episode.
The woman said, “It reminded me that Jesus doesn’t always say yes, but he is there.”
“And that’s why we…do this,” Jenkins said.
The director encourages those who are halfway through watching Season 4 on The CW to hang on because, though the first part of the season is painful, the second half depicts some of the most “amazing and beautiful moments in the history of the world.”
As for Season 5, it “covers the most important and influential week in the history of the world, Holy Week. And so we start to see now, we start to get in Jesus’ head a little bit. We start to see what he’s thinking and feeling as he approaches the cross.”
“We start lean into the fact that the disciples are confused.. Why is Jesus dividing people here? Do we have a chance in Holy Week…a million Jews are together. Why aren’t we unifying so that we can defeat the Romans? And Jesus is doing the opposite so we really explore that. But Jesus also gets to kick a little butt this week too.”
THE CHOSEN Seasons 1-4 are available on The Chosen App, Prime Video and Peacock. Jenkins confirmed that Season 5 has finished filming and will come out next year.