‘The Chosen’ looking to reach 'billions' of people with Lionsgate: series president

Brad Pelo, president and executive producer of "The Chosen," says the multi-season series about Jesus and His followers is looking to reach one billion people through its new distribution partnership with Lionsgate.

Lionsgate, the studio behind "Jesus Revolution," acquired sub-licensing distribution rights worldwide for the history-making series "The Chosen" last month. The Angel Studios originally started as a crowdfunding project in 2019 and has now grown into a global phenomenon being streamed by over 500 million people. 

"Lionsgate, as most people know is a Hollywood studio. And we were blessed in the early days to be represented by Angel Studios who kind of got the crowdfunding going and the initial support of the show," Pelo shared in an interview with The Christian Post.  

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"We've kind of outgrown Angel Studios at this point and so we now have a new partner in Lionsgate, who will be our worldwide distributor of the show,” he continued.

"The Chosen" will always be an Angel Studios original and the studio will still have exclusive launch windows and licensing rights to the show, but Pelo said the new partnership with Lionsgate will expand the reach of the Christ-centered series.

"The show will start appearing on new platforms, broadcast outlets, and even though you'll still be able to watch the show for free in 'The Chosen' app, you will be able to see it on many of your favorite places to watch television," Pelo explained.  

Neal Harmon, CEO of Angel Studios, said he wished "The Chosen" the best in their new venture. He said Angel Studios is committed to continuing to do its part to fulfill the mission of promoting the show.

"To date, Angel Studios has helped 'The Chosen' reach over 120M people worldwide in 174 countries, and licensed it to over 100 streaming platforms and distributors in 27 countries, including Netflix, Amazon and Peacock," Harmon shared with CP.

"We’re glad Lionsgate is now coming onboard as another partner joining in our shared mission to reach 1 billion people with 'The Chosen,'" Harmon, the executive behind the upcoming movie "Sound of Freedom," added.

Following the latest Lionsgate announcement, "The Chosen" president shared that the show is now at the halfway point for season four production.

"We're halfway through and by the end of July, we expect to be completed with our principal photography," Pelo told CP. 

Pelo also discussed the upcoming "Chosen-con," a gathering for Chosen fans slated to take place in Dallas this October. 

"It sold out the first day soon as we announced it. So thousands of people will be coming together," Pelo described. “We'll have the cast there. We'll be probably providing some sneak peeks of some things that are coming around the corner, but just meet and greets and panel discussions."

During the interview, Pelo also paid homage to the show's partnership with the Come and See Foundation, which helps financially support the production of "The Chosen."

"We have been so blessed by the partnership we have with the Come and See Foundation," he added. "The Come and See Foundation is committed to helping us fulfill our mission by making the show but they also want to make it available to the world. They have as an initial goal to translate the show into 600 languages and to dub it into 100 languages."

"We're just excited to have partners with us that, like us, want to impact billions of people with this beautiful story," Pelo said.

When asked to address concerns that the content of "The Chosen" will now be compromised due to partnerships with mainstream companies, Pelo assured CP that no one but the show's creator, Dallas Jenkins, and his writing team will have creative control over the popular series.

"Dallas and his writing team ... control the creative direction of the content. Lionsgate, who's our distributor, does not have a voice in that. The Come and See Foundation, which helps financially support the production, doesn't have a say in that. The creative team that's created what we love so far will continue to shepherd it all the way through," Pelo maintained.  

"One of the beautiful things about being crowd supported was that we answer to God and to the crowd," he stressed. "There is no studio that is responsible for the creation. We now have a studio that's responsible to help us get it out there."

"That's something that studios are built to do. Most of them do that for their own shows," Pelo explained. "Lionsgate made an exception to take on our show because they too would like to see the impact of this great story told around the world."

Season four of "The Chosen" is currently in production, visit the website for more information.