Mel Gibson’s long awaited follow up to The Passion of the Christ has finished production ahead of schedule. Entitled The Resurrection of the Christ, the film will focus on the events after Jesus’s resurrection and the responses of His disciples. Speaking on the “Arroyo Grande” podcast, Gibson’s long-time collaborator, Randall Wallace, recalled the spiritual warnings Gibson offered as he mulled over making the sequel. “He said, ‘If we do this, it can’t be for the money, and it can’t be to get back at people that have hated us or wronged us or been unhappy with us.’ And I said, ‘Amen to that,’” recalled Wallace. Gibson followed it up with a warning. “You know, Satan’s going to come after you,” he said. Wallace followed it up with a joke. “I said, ‘Well, you know, Satan doesn’t really care about Baptists. It’s really good when Satan can get a Catholic. We’re a dime a dozen.’”

That doesn’t mean Wallace is without any reservations. “And of course, I was being facetious, but I was also thinking…” he said, with Arroyo acknowledging that Gibson could be right. “We had a beautiful conversation about grace,” admitted Wallace. While Wallace had not worked on Passion, he volunteered to assist with writing a script for Resurrection. “I knew he had written ‘The Passion,’ was very much deeply involved in the writing of it. And I said, ‘Look, let’s partner up. I’ll write a draft, give it to you, then we’ll start tearing it up, go through it. You do your thing, I’ll do mine. We’ll work together, we’ll work apart.’ So, we started that way,” he remembered. The process of writing a script would end up taking up to eight years.

The production of Passion was riddled with issues, including star Jim Caviezel reportedly being struck by lightning. And while the production has wrapped, it has already been announced that the two-part movie’s release dates will be delayed, with part on now being scheduled for release on May 6, 2027 and part 2 being released May 25, 2028. Both dates mark Ascension Day, the traditional date for when Jesus returned to Heaven. Gibson has called the sequel a “major” part of his life’s work. “I’m deeply grateful to my incredibly talented cast and crew for pouring their hearts into this production. Together, we created something powerful. This film represents a major part of my life’s work, and it has demanded everything of me as a filmmaker and as an artist. This is far more than a film to me. It’s a mission I’ve carried for over 20 years to tell what I believe is the most important story in human history,” he told Variety.

While many from the previous film’s production team have returned to work on the sequel, the film will go on without much of its major cast given the 20 year break between films. Caviezel will be replaced by Jaakko Ohtonen.