2016 Will Be Huge For Entertainment and Religion

The United States is getting more secular all the time, we’re told. And yet religion has never been so big—at least on screen.

Forget about 2014, the so-called “Year of the Christian Movie.” This year will feature several promising Christian flicks with recognizable, borderline A-list stars, and a number of Hollywood’s buzziest secular offerings have a pretty explicit faith angle, too—be it a silly spin or seriously theological. What follows is not a complete rundown, but it gives you an idea of what I’ll be excited—or, in some cases, dreading—to see in the coming year.

Angel from Hell (CBS, Jan. 7): Jane Lynch stars in this CBS comedy, sliding into the role of a guardian angel with a drinking problem and a knack for deadpan one-liners. Maggie Lawson—the super-likeable actress who helped make USA’s Psych such a compulsive watch—co-stars as Allison Fuller, a perfectionist dermatologist whom Lynch has been tasked with guiding. Call me crazy, but does it seem like Lawson’s the more angelic character? (Warning: the extended trailer below proves, fairly definitively, that this is pretty far afield from Touched by an Angel.)

The X-Files (Fox, Jan. 24): OK, so who knows whether this new take on one of my all-time favorite shows will be as theologically interesting as its predecessor. Here’s to hoping.

Lucifer (Fox, Jan. 25): The Fox show is based on a character from DC’s Sandman, and stars Tom Ellis as Lucifer Morningstar—the prince of darkness who opts to spend some time in (ironically) the City of Angels helping out the L.A.P.D. I can’t say that I’m looking forward to this show, but there’s no question it’ll give me plenty to talk about.

You, Me and the Apocalypse (NBC, Jan. 28): This sounds like a program I might love. Or I might hate. Or secretly love but have to hate on principle. This British/American production is about the end of the world and features Rob Lowe as a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking priest who’s tasked with vetting miracles and, apparently, tracking down the antichrist.

Risen (movie, Feb. 19): It’s an Easter whodunit, with a Roman tribune asked to uncover just what happened to the body of that pesky rabbi, Jesus. It stars Joseph Fiennes (BAFTA winner for Shakespeare in Love) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies), and I love the secular, questioning spin it puts on this sacred story.

Damien (A&E, March 7): What, another television series starring the devil? I guess technically Damien—the same little boy from The Omen—is just the devil’s son, though he’s a bit clueless about his lineage until a mysterious lady (Barbara Hershey) tries to convince him that he’s a chip off the ol’ block of brimstone. It looks disturbing, but it may also be kind of interesting, given its potential themes of free will and destiny.

Young Messiah (movie, March 11): In the Bible, we see Jesus as a baby. We see Him as a full-grown man. But we only read one small snippet about him as a boy, calmly teaching a bevy of teachers when his parents were worried sick about him. Young Messiah, based on Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, dares to speculate what happened during some of those narrative gaps—imagining what Jesus would’ve been like as a young boy, slowly coming to grips with His true nature. Oh, and it stars Sean Bean, so it’s got that going for it.

Daredevil (Netflix, March 18): So this isn’t exactly a new series. But if the below trailer is any indication, the second season of this superhero saga will feature many of the same spiritual themes that the first season touched on. And that gets me pretty jazzed.

Miracles from Heaven (movie, March 18): Starring Jennifer Garner, Kylie Rogers and Queen Latifah, this film chronicles a little girl’s fight with a terrible digestive order and a falling tree. But thanks to hope, love, and yes, faith, the girl and her family persevere through it all.

God’s Not Dead 2 (movie, April 1): I admit, I wasn’t a huge fan of the first God’s Not Dead. It felt both a little too strident and a little too pat. But given the tiny Christian flick wound up making more than $62 million, I was clearly in the minority. And perhaps the next one will strike my fancy more. Melissa Joan Hart stars.

Same Kind of Different as Me (movie, April 29): Starring Renée Zellweger, Jon Voight, and Djimon Hounsou, Same Kind of Different as Me chronicles the unlikely friendship that blossoms between an international art dealer and an oft-homeless sharecropper—thanks in part to a woman who wanted to rescue the latter. Based off a bestselling book of the same name, this movie doesn’t have an official trailer yet—but given the story’s literary pedigree (it’s based on a best-selling book) and its cast (both Zellweger and Voight have won Oscars), I’ll be interested to see this one.

Ben Hur (movie, Aug. 12): Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, the creative power couple behind History’s blockbuster miniseries The Bible and NBC’s A.D., bring us the latest retelling of the titular ship-rowing, chariot-racing, revenge-minded Jewish prince. I admit, I’m a little scared of this one: The 1959 Ben Hur, starring Charlton Heston, is one of my favorite movies, and a remake seems unnecessary. ‘Course, the 1959 flick was a remake itself, so who am I to complain?