It’s been a bumpy road for Bible-themed TV shows lately.
The New Testament-themed A.D. The Bible Continues was cancelled after just one season last year, thanks to its falling ratings, and the Old Testament-themed Of Kings & Prophets had to scrap its original pilot episode and start over from scratch.
But now that second pilot is upon us, and the ABC network has released a new trailer in advance of the series’ premiere. In it, we find the young shepherd David caught between a jealous king, a predatory queen and a prophet of uncertain motives — and we get a taste of his looming confrontation with a certain Philistine giant.
You can watch the trailer here:
Incidentally, I love how Ray Winstone’s King Saul says to David, “Did you really think you could just come into my house and take what is mine?” It reminds me of how Winstone’s Tubal-Cain said to Noah, “Did you really think you could protect yourself from me in that?” I’ll have to go back and see if Winstone had a line of dialogue that began “Did you really think you could…?” in the 2010 version of Ben-Hur.
The series premieres on the ABC network on March 8.
February 1 update: Whoa, I somehow missed the fact that an even longer version of this trailer was posted to the internet about two weeks before the trailer above:
Note the extra sex and violence. I also wonder if Saul would have really worried about being known as a “butcher”. “Saul has slain his thousands,” and all that.
Check out earlier trailers and other videos here:
- The trailer for the original pilot episode (May 12, 2015)
- The ‘Legend’ promo (January 6, 2016)
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