It’s almost two years since I posted something about the putative sequel to The Passion of the Christ finally being about to happen… and, well, two years later it’s apparently still about to happen:
Mel Gibson says that he is going to cast a de-aged Jim Caviezel in his long-planned sequel to The Passion of the Christ, and that the film will be an “acid trip”.
Gibson was speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, and when asked who “the next Jesus” was going be, Gibson replied that he was aiming to use Caviezel, who had played the lead role in the first film in 2004, in a story about Jesus’ resurrection. Asked how he would handle the 20-year time gap for a story that is supposed to take place three days after the events depicted in Passion of the Christ, Gibson said he would use de-ageing techniques that are “so good now”.
Asked when the film would start shooting, Gibson said he hoped to begin “next year sometime”, adding: “There’s a lot required because it’s an acid trip. I’ve never read anything like it.”
So it might finally be happening in 2026? At which end of the year? I don’t know, I feel like 2 Passion 2 Christ is Mel’s white whale, kind of like his version of the Avatar sequels in that James Cameron also insists will happen but the second one took thirteen years to finally come out (number three will supposedly be out by the end of this year) and only Cameron really still cared about it. Times have moved on and I doubt that a second Passion will do anything like the business the first one did, if and when it ever becomes a thing. And as far as it being an “acid trip” goes, well, This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse already exists. Mel’s Hell had better be at least as lunatic/ludicrous as that if it’s going to be worth doing at all…
