After 21 long years, Mel Gibson’s much anticipated sequel to “The Passion of the Christ” has officially been given the green light. In an interview with the Italian news outlet Il Sole 24 Ore, Manuela Cacciamani, CEO of Cinecittà Studios, announced that shooting will begin this August in Rome. The new film, entitled “The Resurrection of the Christ,” will see actors Jim Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, and Francesco De Vito reprise their roles as Jesus, Mary and Peter respectively.  The movie will be shot in Rome’s Cinecittà Studios and the southern Italian locations of Matera, Ginosa, Gravina Laterza and Altamura.

Details of the project have been scant over the years. Gibson has repeatedly delayed developing the film partly because of its scope. During a recent interview with Joe Rogan, Gibson said, “It took a long time to write. It’s really ambitious… and it goes from like the fall of the angels to the death of the last apostle.” Gibson added, “I think in order to really tell the story properly you have to really start with the fall of the angels, which is… you’re in another place, you’re in another realm. You need to go to Hell. You need to go to Sheol.” Gibson also said it would include Satan’s origin.

Because of its complexity, there have been at least six drafts of the screenplay and multiple writers. Gibson, his brother Donal Gibson and “Braveheart” screenwriter Randall Wallace are all credited with writing the script. “It’s about finding the way in that’s not cheesy or too obvious,” Gibson said. “I think I have ideas about how to do that and ideas about how to evoke things and emotions in people from the way you depict it and the way you shoot it. So I’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” Gibson explained. “It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to require a lot of planning and I’m not wholly sure I can pull it off. To tell you the truth, it’s super ambitious. But I’ll take a crack at it because that’s what you’ve got to do, right? Walk up to the plate, right? I think I can get it.” 

Script complexity aside, Gibson has had to navigate other obstacles such as using some of the same actors he did 20 years earlier. Speaking on Caviezel’s age and his role in the story, Gibson said, “It’s supposed to be three days later but he got 20 years older.” Gibson intends to use digital de-aging to make his actors appear youthful again.   

Gibson also mentioned he’s unsure about what language to use. The first movie used Latin, Aramaic, and Hebrew with English subtitles. He mentioned the new movie might just be in English. “I don’t know that you can do it in a foreign language because the concepts are too difficult now,” Gibson said. “You may have to resort to the vernacular so that that at least is clear.” Gibson mentioned it’s still open for debate however. “I’ve written it in English. But I wrote the last one in English too and translated it,” he said.   

While there is no specific release date, “The Resurrection of the Christ” is expected to hit theaters sometime in 2026.