The Chosen star Jonathan Roumie explained how the show’s fifth season will explore the “hypocrisy” within the church, specifically how religious leaders in the New Testament would extort “the poorest of the poor.”
During an appearance on ABC News’s The View, Roumie, who plays Jesus Christ in the popular television series, delved into his leading role and what it explores in the show’s next season. Co-host Sunny Hostin asked how the show portrays Jesus’s “righteous anger” and what evoked these feelings within Jesus. Roumie explained his character depicts Jesus seeing “the temple establishment” exercising hypocrisy in their faith.
“Seeing religious leaders basically subvert the meaning behind, and the practices of his faith at the time, and extort the poorest of the poor during the holidays, you know, when they all had to bring their sacrifice to be slain for Passover, you had to pay taxes, and then you had to pay Roman tax, and then there’s a conversion tax, and there’s all of these bills, fines that were levied, essentially, just to be able to practice your faith,” Roumie said. “And among very many other things, that was the last straw for him, and so he wanted to basically reset the temple, and we see that in this season.”
Roumie was then asked about the show’s large viewership from the non-religious audience, which accounts for roughly 30% of the show’s viewers. The actor said the number is due to how the show is telling “the greatest story ever told” and expressed hope the show was told “in a way that is comparable” to other forms of storytelling in television or film.
When asked how playing Jesus has changed his relationship with God, the Catholic actor said he has “a lot more to learn about Him,” calling this relationship a “lifelong journey.” He added that while there is “so much to learn” about living in the way God ordained, simply trying to achieve this way of living “makes you better as a person.”
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The fifth season of The Chosen will debut its first two episodes in theaters on March 28, followed by the next three episodes on April 11 and the final three on April 11. Amazon Prime will then stream the show’s fifth season this June.
Earlier this month, Roumie had a one-on-one discussion with commentator Tucker Carlson, which explored Roumie’s view on Lent and his views on playing Jesus. The interview caught the attention of musician Gwen Stefani, who called the actor “a powerful inspirational human.”