That is an excerpt from TV Information Journal’s The Chosen: Particular Easter Difficulty. For a deep-dive into the wildly fashionable collection and its upcoming fifth season, choose up a replica of the difficulty out there on newsstands and order on-line right here.
It’s a sizzling day in the course of July and a choose group of journalists are taking a strolling tour of Capernaum. At the very least, it looks like we may very well be within the Center East — it’s a scorching 94 levels! — however we’re actually on The Chosen’s 80,000-square-foot Midlothian, Texas, set, positioned on the Salvation Military’s Camp Hoblitzelle. The large compound is just a part of the Bible-based historic drama’s house (the collection additionally shoots in Goshen, Utah, the place Season 5 filming started with the triumphal entry in spring 2024).
However within the Lone Star State, our cluster of reporters and digicam operators get to see the 2 massive soundstages and the expansive backlot that serves as the house for Capernaum (erected in 2021, it has been remodeled from the small fishing village into the bustling metropolis of Jerusalem for Season 5), the Sanhedrin temple the place the Pharisees collect and different spots avid viewers will acknowledge. Throughout from town set is the shining lake that turns into the Sea of Galilee. Strolling via the luxurious surroundings looks like stepping again in time.
“We have been in search of a spot the place we may seize the essence of the Center Jap locales the place Jesus’ ministry came about,” mentioned The Chosen President Brad Pelo in 2022. “After we noticed this website and the broad open areas with rolling hills, we knew it was the place to grow to be our house for years to come back.” You would say they selected to construct their home on a rock.
Justin Clemons
Along with acquainted areas, the press social gathering was provided glimpses into the fifth season’s new units — from Excessive Priest Caiaphas’ (Richard Fancy) ornate workplace to the colourful house of a mysterious new Greek, Phoebe (whose casting was not introduced at press time).
Manufacturing designer James R. Craftyham, who has labored on the drama since 2018, is chargeable for each intricate setting, from constructing total metropolis blocks to stuffing bookshelves with dozens of scrolls. Every time, Cunningham and the crew increase the stakes. “[Season 5] is an enormous season for us,” he says outdoors of Soundstage 1, earlier than main us via a hallway that opens right into a embellished backyard atrium. “Each set was brand-new, aside from Lazarus’ [house], however we needed to redo that, so it felt brand-new.”
A part of Laz’s Bethany-based house, says Cunningham, was used to create extra rooms for Pontius Pilate (Andrew James Allen). Constructing and rebuilding is only one approach the scrappy collection — which is partially financed via crowdfunding and fan donations — retains prices down. Even in its fifth season, it’s not laborious to think about that’s useful when the bold hours forward function extra of the Holy Metropolis and its rich inhabitants than ever earlier than.
Preliminary designs for the 55 new units and places started in October 2023, development began in February 2024 and, by July, over 100 crew members have been on their last two weeks. Nonetheless, they have been busily portray, sawing, and hammering away at iconic spots, just like the higher room the place the Final Supper takes place, a spot that Cunningham says has already been via 5 totally different phases of design. “It’s a race to the end on that one,” he admits.
However what stunned us essentially the most? Whereas the workforce tries its greatest to supply genuine supplies, Cunningham additionally outlets at HomeGoods, Goal, and Walmart. “[There are] a variety of issues we’ve to purchase, and every part will get touched,” the designer explains. “We both have to color it or age it, so we all the time need something that we placed on to look handmade or like it could again within the 1st century.” That means stitching a number of tassels onto curtains and spray-painting furnishings to look weathered, or extra ornate, relying on the state of affairs. Sounds fairly miraculous.
Under, we’ve supplied a couple of snapshots of what it’s wish to discover the epic hit’s Texas units. So, as they wish to say on The Chosen…come and see.