We know that in May 2027 it won’t be Jim Caviezel stepping into the role of Jesus for The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection, because Mel Gibson has replaced him with the younger Jaakko Ohtonen, choosing to sidestep digital aging. Appearing on the Arroyo Grande podcast to promote the action film Ghost Soldier, Caviezel answered questions about this recasting, a decision that weighs heavily on him not only on a professional level, since he has long been the spokesperson for the United States’ more conservative, faith-based faction.
Jim Caviezel was taken aback by the substitution in The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection
Even though the recasting of Jesus’ character made sense for age-related reasons (even Monica Bellucci is no longer Mary Magdalene), Jim Caviezel could not remain unmoved, more than twenty years after the success of The Passion of the Christ (2004), the Mel Gibson film that brought him to worldwide attention. The script for the two sequels that frame The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection nevertheless passed through his hands; it was the minimum that Gibson’s Icon Productions owed to the former interpreter: “Honestly, when I read the first and second scripts, Jesus isn’t… let’s say he didn’t need me. It’s a smaller role. If you compare it to the part in this action film, there’s more substance, like in The Count of Monte Cristo, and I’m the lead. […] Did I want to do it? Certainly. My heart broke. I was meant to be Jesus in the Resurrection and it has been discussed for about a decade or two, but Icon went in a different direction.” In short, Caviezel downplays it, but it’s clear he didn’t take it well: at the same time, a potential digital aging process might have distorted the visceral core that Mel Gibson is seeking for the upcoming trilogy, with his non-synoptic approach and the presence of “crazy stuff,” to use his own words.
The two parts of the Resurrection will arrive respectively in May 2027 and May 2028.
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