On Thursday, Feb. 1, the highly anticipated fourth season of the popular series “The Chosen” releases to theaters as three Fathom Events releases throughout the month. The new episodes, reaching the halfway point of its planned seven season run, continues to flesh out the world of Jesus and His disciples as they perform miracles and change the world.
The disciple Judas Iscariot, treasurer and (spoiler alert) the one who will eventually betray Jesus, is skillfully portrayed by Luke Dimyan (“Better Things,” “Home Invasion”). During the series’ “teal carpet” premiere in Los Angeles, he shared his perspective on the infamous figure’s journey and if he, like Jonathan Roumie (Jesus), has encountered emotional offscreen reactions by viewers.
The interesting thing to me about Judas is that we typically make him a one dimensional character that there’s no good and him, there is no humanity. I think it makes us feel better about ourselves, because we’re like, “Oh, we would never be Judas.” But actually, he was a human. Talk a little bit about his journey and how you have given him humanity in this series.
I think it’s really, really important to have people in the faith come to terms with that. Not everyone’s just a black and white person who’s done something wrong. There are usually reasons behind it. There’s a reason why Christ usually surrounded himself with sinners,while the Pharisees pushed those kinds of people away. It’s because He wasn’t interested in the surface value, presenting a form of holiness, He was looking for true holiness, which can be found in anyone, and it’s really easy to judge. So, I’m glad that we’re presenting a Judas that isn’t so easy to judge and that maybe you could find a little bit of yourself and maybe that can make you think about a thing or two.
I know Jonathan gets a lot of emotional reactions from people who see him in person. What about you? Have you had any emotional reactions outside of the show?
Oh, yeah. They get really emotional, like the shoe comes immediately off and before you know it, it’s chucked right at your head. You only get like two seconds past the scream of “Judas!” (laughs) No, but honestly, I think Jonathan Roumie has a much harder experience than the rest of us because there’s that there’s that real like emotional connection with though that I don’t think a lot of people have with Judas. Judas people are very happy to separate, but with Jonathan as Jesus, it’s hard for people to make that emotional disconnection between character and actor. Honestly, I don’t envy him. That’s a that’s a very strong and heavy weight that he carries very well. Like he is unbreakable. He’s marble.
Episodes 1-3 of “The Chosen” Season Four, created and directed by Dallas Jenkins and produced by Jenkins, Derral Eaves and Brad Pelo, premieres Thursday, February 1 in theaters through Fathom Events. Episodes 4-6 will premiere February 15 and episodes 7-8 will release February 29. For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.
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