The Chosen star Jonathan Roumie believes this year’s season of the award-winning show will help bring to light the “power and meaning of the Eucharist” for Catholic viewers.
The US-based actor is best known for his award-winning role as Jesus in the multi-season historical drama based on the Gospels.
Launched as an independent crowd-funded project in 2019 The Chosen has been viewed by more than a million people through its own app and online streaming platforms, as well as in cinemas.
The Chosen: Last Supper, will be the fifth season of the acclaimed series premiering in cinemas across Australia on 10 April, distributed by Crossroad Distributors.
Following a limited run in cinemas, the season depicting the events of Holy Week is expected to debut on streaming platforms later in 2025.
Last year, Roumie, who is a devout Catholic, addressed thousands of young people with a powerful talk on the importance of the Eucharist at the US National Eucharistic Congress held in Indiana.
His talk happened to be scheduled shortly after filming the scene depicting the Last Supper had wrapped up. It was timing, he told The Catholic Weekly, which was providential and “a great gift and grace.”
While the show departs at times from Catholic teachings (one episode in an earlier season shows Our Lady having other sons apart from Jesus, for example), it is generally respectful of them.
“The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life, that’s what we believe as Catholics and it is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ in the present,” he said.
“So to be able to get to show the institution of that mystery, with the artists and craftsmen who filmed that scene which looks so beautiful, I think it’s going to elevate people’s experience of those moments in the Gospel.”
High production values and Roumie’s portrayal of a very personable, humorous, wise and tender Jesus—not to mention a good-looking one—is part of a wider cultural movement making Christianity cool again.
But he says at times he was “completely intimidated” by the task before him, and he relied on “deep prayer” and the help of his spiritual director who accompanied him on set.
“Portraying the Last Supper and the time spent in garden of Gethsemane were pivotal moments for me in the story and also as an actor,” he said.
“They were these intensely seminal and iconic moments in scripture and God only knows what that could have felt like for Jesus in essentially his last moments as a free human being on earth before being arrested, sentenced to death, tortured and crucified.
“They are also his last earthly moments in relationship with his best friends who he’s cultivated over the last three years, before everything changes.
“Trying to wrap my mind around how to approach that was beyond me.
“Both of those moments and also at times even throughout I was just overwhelmed, but in concert with everyone involved in the show, what we created especially with the Last Supper is going to be beautiful, profoundly impactful and emotional, and hopefully bring to light especially as Catholics the power and the meaning of the Eucharist and the fulfilment at that moment of what we read in John chapter 6.”
The season trailer was released on 20 February, with The Chosen creator Dallas Jenkins saying he was more excited to deliver it “than any we’ve done.”
“The takeaway for you from this season: Can you believe and follow even when you don’t understand?” he said.
“Yes, it’s sad and heart-breaking because we’re getting closer to the cross, but we’re also going to get to see some of the most iconic and deeply moving moments from Scripture.”
Roumie, 50, is also an advisor for the popular Catholic prayer and meditation app Hallow.
He said he could not have coped with the success he has today if it had come to him earlier in life and encourages young Christians to seek to develop a prayer life with support from the church.
“I would have been overcome with fear and a lack of common-sense and wisdom, and also enticement by the trappings of the early life and what comes with being successful, or the idea of being successful that comes with visibility,” he said.
“If I could talk to my younger self I would implore him to cultivate a deeper relationship with Jesus as soon as possible.
“Go on a silent retreat, do something that dramatically impacts the experience of what it means to be in communication and communion with God, so a deeper relationship may be inspired and then cultivated.
“The sooner you recognise that God’s in charge and you fully and willingly give him control over your life, the better you’re going to be able to handle the challenges of building that career, your marriage, those relationships with family and friends or anything we do as human beings.
“I endeavour to maintain and deepen that relationship now, and the opportunities I have now have all come as a result of and subsequent to my first acknowledging that God is the centre of my life and I need him to show me what he wants for me.
“And then I give everything I have in pursuit of that.”
Of the next International Eucharistic Congress in 2028, Roumie thought it “awesome” it is being hosted by Sydney and is open to an invitation Down Under.
“Going to Australia is still on my bucket list, so I’d love to come, let’s do this,” he said.