This first-ever multi-season drama about the life of Christ is nearly halfway to its funding goal for all eight episodes.
Having given access to season one free of charge, The Chosen is on quite a run. As of this writing, it's been viewed 28.5 million times all over the world, has garnered well over a million followers on social media and has already raised $4.4 million of the $10 million need for the 2nd season.
Series creator and director Dallas Jenkins is - not surprisingly - extremely pleased with developments. He told investors this week that there is a chance he will shoot and release the first half of season two before the year is out, depending on a number of factors, like finding a new location for production, normalization of the situation with the coronavirus and attaining the requisite level of financing. The summer months are a likely target for launching production, if things shake out in time.
On that point about the money, Jenkins, who is a committed Christian, and his team are largely relying on a pay-it-forward program of donations, which has also allowed them to make the show available for free. They may, however, again need to turn to a crowdfunding investment mechanism as they did so successfully to fund the inaugural season (they raised over $10 million for that, more than any other media project ever.)
Jenkins and writing partners Ryan Swanson and Tyler Thompson have completed the first four scripts of the second season and are now moving on to write episodes five through eight. The devotional - 40 Days with Jesus - that will accompany it is also complete and features a foreword from Christian film director Alex Kendrick, a big fan of the show, and they are also putting together a children's picture book they hope to have ready in time for Christmas, so there is much on the horizon for this program.
Christian Film Blog will keep you abreast of developments as we get them, and if you haven't seen The Chosen, you can do so on the app, which is available from Google Play and the Apple App Store, or via this link to their YouTube channel.