Dallas Jenkins, the creator and director of the popular Christian show “The Chosen,” which depicts the life of Jesus and his disciples, spoke to Allie Beth Stuckey on her “Relatable” podcast about what led him to create the popular series. “My thought was, as a young guy growing up — I grew up in the faith, and as a Christian — I loved TV and movies, but there wasn’t anything that represented my faith that I liked as much as the normal TV and movies I would watch. If there was a Christian movie that came out, it wasn’t any good,” he told Stuckey. As the son of Jerry B. Jenkins, author of The Left Behind Series, entertainment ran in Jenkins’s blood. Eventually, he felt the call from God to make quality Christian entertainment. “I’ve found that people that rejected stories of faith were rejecting more the quality than they were necessarily the story. There are plenty of people who aren’t believers who will watch a movie or TV show that comes from a faith perspective or is about a faith story if it’s compelling. We found that with ‘The Chosen.'”

“The Chosen” has indeed been a very successful show since its premiere in 2019. The show is hosted by Angel Studios and is the most crowd-funded film in history. The show had over 400 million views as of last May and had a successful theatrical release, with the first two episodes earning over 14 million dollars during the third season’s theatrical release. Those involved with the show have also reflected on its appeal to Generation Z. Derrell Eves, co-founder of the show, noted the number of young people that have reached out to him about the show’s impact on him. “With Gen Z, I see one of the most amazing generations that ever walked the face of the Earth. They just need to identify. They need to know where they identify. And my heart is that they are able to see that what they’re craving is something authentic, something true, and very disruptive. And that’s what Jesus taught,” he told the Christian Post. He added, “I think we’re on the verge of seeing a revolution, where people will come behind Jesus like we’ve never seen before. And it’s that generation, Gen Z, that is going to make that happen…they know how to assemble, they know how to communicate, they know how to share, and the world really needs to know the Gospel of what Jesus actually taught because in the world we’re living in right now, there’s a lot of issues.” 

The show has not been without its criticism, even amongst believers. Some accused the show of using a line from The Book of Mormon when Jesus was shown in a trailer saying, “I am the Law of Moses.” Jenkins denied it was a direct quote or that he has ever read The Book of Mormon. He has also been criticized for his apparent softness on Mormonism, which is considered non-Christian by many evangelicals due to its reliance on The Book of Mormon over the Bible, their denial of the Trinity, and that Jesus was not born God but rose to divinity. In an interview about whether or not Mormonism is compatible with Christianity, he avoided being direct and said instead, “It would be just as dumb for me to say that all LDS are Christians as it would be to say that all evangelicals are Christians, or that all Catholics are Christians or any other faith tradition. It would also be dumb for me to say that none are.” The show has also been criticized as Jesus fanfiction. Jenkins stated in the “Relatable” podcast, “I would say, probably 95 percent of the content of the show isn’t directly from Scripture. People call it a Bible show; they’ll call it a Jesus show. And I’m OK with that, but I’ll say, ‘This is actually — I mean, the Bible is for sure the primary source of truth and inspiration for the show, but there’s a ton of content that isn’t actually directly from Scripture.” He went on to say, “We’re not a replacement for Scripture; we never claimed to be. … This is a show about first-century Galilee using the Bible as our primary source.”