More than two decades after The Passion of the Christ shocked Hollywood, conquered the box office and turned ancient-language subtitles into unlikely blockbuster material, Mel Gibson is finally returning to the story of Jesus-and apparently almost nothing about the sequel is going to be predictable.
Gibson has revealed that his massive two-part follow-up, The Resurrection of the Christ, will ditch one of the original movie's most famous creative choices: this time, everybody is speaking English.
And that may be the least surprising thing about what Gibson has planned.
Speaking at Fan Expo Boston, Gibson confirmed that both movies have completed principal photography and are now in post-production. He filmed the two installments together in Rome and is currently overseeing editing and visual effects.
His tease?
"It's pretty crazy," Gibson said, adding that he doesn't think the finished film will be "anything anyone would expect."
That's quite a promise considering Gibson has previously suggested his Resurrection story could venture far beyond a conventional Gospel movie.
Forget a Straightforward Easter Movie
Perhaps the biggest revelation is that Gibson isn't simply picking up where The Passion of the Christ left off and marching chronologically toward the empty tomb.
Instead, Resurrection will unfold non-linearly, moving between events in an attempt to explain the theological significance of Christ's resurrection.
Gibson described the structure as another "jigsaw puzzle," arguing that the Resurrection has to be juxtaposed with other events rather than presented as a simple chronological narrative.
That fits some of Gibson's eyebrow-raising comments about the project over the years. The filmmaker has discussed exploring territory including Sheol, Hell, Satan and the fall of the angels-material that could turn Resurrection into something considerably stranger and more cosmic than the biblical epic audiences may be expecting.
In other words: Gibson apparently isn't making The Passion of the Christ 2. He appears to be attempting a cinematic theology of the Resurrection.
And Yes, Jesus Will Speak English
There's another major break with the 2004 movie.
The Passion of the Christ famously used reconstructed Aramaic and Latin, forcing mainstream moviegoers to watch much of the brutal biblical drama through subtitles.
Not this time.
Both Resurrection movies were filmed in English.
Gibson says the reason is surprisingly practical: there is simply too much theology for audiences to absorb while simultaneously reading subtitles.
He described the material as a complicated "theological download" and said he wanted viewers to be able to digest the ideas immediately.
That is a fascinating reversal.
One of the things that made The Passion feel so unusual in 2004 was precisely its refusal to sound like a conventional Hollywood biblical movie. Gibson is now sacrificing some of that linguistic authenticity because he apparently believes the sequel is too complicated to subtitle.
One Resurrection Apparently Needed Two Movies
Gibson also confirmed that the enormous story has been divided into two distinct films.
The filmmaker spent years developing the screenplay with Braveheart writer Randall Wallace and his brother Donal Gibson. Gibson says the split emerged naturally from the screenplay, with the two installments functioning individually while ultimately completing each other.
And the wait between them will now be substantial.
The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One is scheduled to arrive May 6, 2027-Ascension Day. Part Two is slated for May 25, 2028, which also falls on Ascension Day and Memorial Day weekend in the United States. The dates replace an earlier release strategy that would have put the installments much closer together.
So audiences may leave Part One with quite a cliffhanger-and have roughly a year to argue about what Gibson just showed them.
Gibson Has a Lot Riding on This Resurrection
The stakes are enormous.
The original Passion of the Christ became a genuine Hollywood phenomenon, earning more than $610 million worldwide despite its religious subject matter, graphic violence and extensive use of ancient languages.
More than 20 years later, Gibson isn't simply trying to repeat the trick.
He is changing the language, changing the narrative structure, expanding the story into two films and apparently taking audiences into theological territory rarely attempted on this scale by a mainstream biblical epic.
There is even an unusually dramatic backstory surrounding the screenplay. Wallace recently recalled Gibson warning him when they began contemplating the sequel that making a film about the Resurrection would carry spiritual consequences, telling him, "Satan's going to come after you."
Gibson himself has described the project as something much bigger than another Hollywood sequel-a mission he has carried for more than two decades.
And suddenly his old description of the project as an "acid trip" doesn't sound quite so hyperbolic.
After 2004's blood-soaked, Aramaic-speaking Passion, Gibson is coming back with an English-language, non-linear, two-movie Resurrection epic involving an enormous theological canvas.
Whatever The Resurrection of the Christ turns out to be, "Jesus rises from the dead" appears to be only the beginning.
