Watch: David has a crush on a princess in a sneak peek from next week’s Of Kings and Prophets, plus a new featurette

Of Kings and Prophets didn’t quite find the audience it was looking for when it premiered the other day, but there are still several episodes to come. The network has released a new featurette on the series, a sneak peek of next week’s episode, and some clips from the premiere that aired two nights ago. Check ’em out below the jump.

First, here’s the sneak peek, in which Joab cautions David not to fall in love with Saul’s daughter, and to avoid getting tangled up in Saul’s dynasty altogether:

Second, here’s a new featurette, which features soundbites from producers Chris Brancato and Reza Aslan, and from co-stars Ray Winstone (Saul), Olly Rix (David), Simone Kessell (Ahinoam), Jeanine Mason (Merav), Maisie Richardson-Sellers (Michal), James Floyd (Ishbaal) and Nathaniel Parker (who plays the Philistine king Achish in this series, and previously played David in a 1997 TV-movie):

Speaking of which, there have been some other text interviews with the producers.

Brancato talked to NJ.com about expanding the biblical narrative, and about the possible controversy over the show’s strong sexual elements:

“From my experience, faith-based people like sex as much as anybody else. I don’t know that that will necessarily be an impediment. I’m hoping this show doesn’t live and die by the violence or the sex, but on the attracting and hooking into the characters.” . . .

“It’s a true-to-life story. It’s real people who existed. The Bible, as you know, it was written thousands of years ago. It was revised along the way, and there’s a lot of what we call negative space, which is to say, you have to fill in and understand character motivations … We try to give the characters psychologically complex motivations that we believe they would have had if the men or the women who wrote the Bible took Robert McKee’s story structure class.”

Winstone talked to the Albany Herald about playing King Saul:

“Was I looking to play a biblical king? No,” Winstone recently told a gathering of TV critics in Pasadena, Calif. “What interested me in Saul was looking into the records of him. The only thing I knew about Saul was he was one of the first kings of Israel.

“But for me, what was more interesting in Saul was the stress of the man, the illness of the man, a man who was a normal guy, a shepherd, who was labored with the weight of running the nation and how it affected him and how it affected his family. So, as in any drama, you look for what you can bring to a character. And that’s what it was for me that interested me in King Saul.”

Executive producer Mahyad Tousi talked to Huffpost Religion about the appeal of the story for him as a Muslim:

Q. This is an epic Biblical saga about David, so what drew you to this story when you’re of Muslim background?

A: For me, it’s that David is a true example of an Eastern hero motif – complex, conflicted and human – unlike most heroes we are used to seeing on screen, who are often modeled after the Greek mythological motifs: absolute in their resolve and super human. Even though he may have lived 3000 years ago, David is arguably one of the most contemporary figures in any mythology, religious or otherwise.

It’s also worth noting that David is a rare religious figure revered by all three Abrahamic faiths. He is the central figure in the Hebrew Bible; his direct lineage to Jesus Christ is paramount in the New Testament; and he is celebrated as both a Prophet of God and a King of Israel in Islam.

Aslan told the Jewish Journal the producers have already mapped out four seasons’ worth of storylines: “This story lends itself to a gradual telling.”

And The Fresno Bee, The Salt Lake Tribune and the Sioux City Journal have lots of similar/familiar-sounding quotes from the producers and co-stars as well.

Finally, here are some clips from last Tuesday’s series premiere.

‘David’s Task: Kill or Be Killed’, which expands on an earlier clip:

‘David Seeks Out and Finds His Lion’:

‘Saul Defies the Word of the Lord’:

‘David’s Invitation into the House of Saul’, which also expands on an earlier clip:

March 11 update: One more clip from last Tuesday’s premiere has surfaced. This one is called ‘Samuel Will Bless the Marriage of Saul’s Daughter…for a Price’:

Check out earlier Of Kings and Prophets trailers and other videos here:

• The trailer for the original pilot episode (May 12, 2015)
• The ‘Legend’ promo (January 6, 2016)
• The ‘New Extended Trailer’ and ‘Series Premiere’ trailers (January 29, 2016)
• The ‘A Hero Will Rise’ TV spot (February 2, 2016)
• The ‘A destiny will be uncovered’, ‘A hero has been chosen’, ‘Warrior. Lover. Legend.’, ‘Conquer everything. Trust no one.’ and ‘A hero’s journey is beginning’ TV spots (February 10, 2016)
• The ‘Witness the rise of a hero.’, ‘A hero will rise.’ and ‘A king grapples with his destiny.’ TV spots (February 21, 2016)
• The ‘The Epic Story’ TV spot and the Saul, Ahinoam, Jonathan and Ishbaal character videos (February 29, 2016)
• The ‘David Avoids Being Flogged’ and ‘David Kills a Lion with Only His Sling’ sneak peeks (March 9, 2016)